Gone Ghost
by FriTik
Summary: What if Danny didn't only lose half his life in the portal accident? What if he really died? AU
1. Into the Portal

**Hey guys random plot bunny that came to me. Not sure how many of my normal viewers will actually read this as I've been writing DBZ not DP but hey I like the show and this is (maybe) a good idea.**

 **Basic premise the portal accident kills Danny. Like really kills him. All the way. Not half-way. I hope to make a story out of this but fair warning updates will be random and periodic.**

 **Basically whenever I feel inspired to write this.**

 **Anywho, thanks to melanshi for helping inspire this with Dimension Chasers. For those who haven't read it check it out it's pretty good.**

 **Now what do I not own? Let's see a car, a house of my own, and oh yeah Danny Phantom.**

* * *

Danny had felt that it was a bad idea from the start.

His parents so called ghost portal had been a complete failure and figuring it was safe enough if it was broken he had decided to show it to Sam and Tucker.

It seemed like a maw dark and empty. Ready to consume what came into it. Or at least that's what he thought it looked like.

Sam had suggested he go into it.

At first he had laughed it off and so had Tucker thinking she was joking.

"No really I'm serious." Sam said, "I mean it looks all neat and sciencey you can go in and I'll take some pictures it'll be cool."

"I dunno Sam I'm not quite sure it's safe…" he responded.

"Look your parents already said it didn't work. So it's completely fine right?"

"I guess…" Danny said, looking at the gaping maw.

He thought about it some more. It hadn't worked just like most of his parents inventions. What was really the harm in it? And could he really say no to Sam?

He had a slight, teeny-tiny, almost non-existent really, crush on her. Not that he would ever admit it. Especially not to her. She would probably kick him in the groin.

"Here put this on." She shoved a hazmat suit his parents had made in his size toward him. His father's smiling face grinned at him from the middle.

"Yeah umm no thank you." He honestly thought the thing was stupid looking.

"Yeah Sam it is kind of dumb looking." Tucker said from the side looking up from his PDA.

"Maybe if it didn't have my dad's face on it." Danny gave her a grin.

"Maybe you should ask them for one like that." Sam said throwing it onto a nearby table.

"Well when this thing didn't work", He indicated the portal, "They kind of just gave up on stuff. It was supposed to be their biggest achievement and they failed."

"Harsh", Tucker said looking at the hole in the wall.

"Tell me about it, but hey at least for the time being I don't have to hear a speech on ghosts every half hour." Danny reasoned.

"What do you mean time being" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Pfft, have you met my parents," Danny deadpanned "Eventually they'll get started back up again on this and everything will go back to normal." He paused for a moment. "Well at least as normal as you can get with my parents. But honestly I have to say I hate seeing them so upset."

"Well like you said they'll be back to normal soon" Tucker consolled.

"Yeah Jazz will probably do some shrink stuff on them to try to get them happy but away from ghosts." Danny smiled at the thought of his annoying older sister playing counselor to his ghost hunter parents.

"So you gonna check out the portal or not?" Sam asked, raising a camera up for pictures.

Yeah okay, I'm going in." Danny crept over to the portal in the wall.

Quite frankly he felt a bit nervous despite the fact it didn't work. It was just so…

 _Spooky._

He mentally chuckled at the thought. Ghost portal being spooky ha.

It was dark inside the portal the light from outside gave some indication of things but it was still hard to see.

His foot snagged on a wire and he started tumbling forward but caught himself on the wall.

When his hand hit the wall he felt it sink inward in a circle.

The portal started buzzing to life around him everything was bright.

He squinted and straightened up. There was a loud humming noise coming from all around him. He moved his hand away from the wall.

There was a big button that said ON.

 _Dang it dad_. He thought briefly before there was a bright light.

Suddenly everything was burning. His body was filled with thousands of volts of electricity. Everything was hurting, he couldn't move at all.

It hurt so much. He couldn't even begin to put words to it.

Then it was over he fell out of the portal. His vision was darkening. He felt like every part of his body was burning. He saw Sam and Tucker running towards him. He saw their lips moving but he couldn't hear anything.

His vision continued to darken. He tried to breath but his lungs wouldn't work. He couldn't get a breath of air.

He realized he was dying.

He was scared.

He didn't want to die.

His vision was almost completely black now. He couldn't feel anything. He had one final thought. _I don't want anyone else to have to go through this._

Sam was calling his name but he couldn't hear it. Tucker had run upstairs calling for Jazz and his parents but he didn't know that.

Danny Fenton died.

* * *

Danny's eyes shot up and he looked around in a panic.

He was alive! He let out a shout of elation. Then he looked around. Green. Everything was green.

Okay where was he? This wasn't his parent's lab or anywhere in his house.

He was fairly sure it wasn't a hospital either.

It certainly didn't look like anywhere he was familiar with.

He felt cold. He rubbed his arms and looked around again taking in his surroundings. He seemed to be on a floating rock in the middle of a great green void. He saw doors floating in distance as well as many other rocks.

He rubbed his eyes but then stared at his hands. They were pale. Very pale with a slight greenish tint he probably wouldn't notice if he wasn't looking closely.

Next he noticed his shirt. Instead of white it was now black. His red oval was now greenish blue. His pants were a pale red color. His red and white sneakers were now greenish blue and black.

Now he noticed his bangs which hung slightly over his eyes. They weren't the familiar black but a silvery white instead.

Then he realized something. He wasn't breathing. At all. He sucked in a breath but didn't feel anything. His chest didn't even rise. He let the air out and still felt as if he wasn't really breathing.

As all these facts hit him he slowly came to the dark terrifying conclusion.

He _was_ dead.

And he was a _ghost_.

* * *

 **And done. Hip hip hooray.**

 **Honestly I kinda just was sitting at my computer when this popped into my head. So I thought why the heck not?**

 **Computer: I can list a few reas-**

 **NO LEAVE YOU'RE NOT IN THIS STORY GET OUT.**

 **Ignore him he literally means nothing to this story.**

 **Anyway I'm gonna have Danny start meeting some other ghosts in the next chapter if you have any preferences for who you want to explain things to him and get him to calm down leave it in the reviews.**

 **Til next time FriTik signing off!**

 **R &R**


	2. The Ghost Zone

**So here we are finally with a new real chapter!**

 **(Spontaneous cheering!)**

 **Yes, yes it has been a long time coming hasn't it? Speaking of that sorry. But inspiration hits when it hits. It helps to just spend every free moment of time reading DP fanfics.**

 **So instead of my normal update of Son Siblings I'm posting this. Sorry about that if you're also reading that story, new chapter is in the works.**

 **So anyway Option 1 won in the end. Sorry to those of you who wanted options 2 and 3. Hope you still read despite that.**

 **So we got a Danny with no memory who is going to be learning about the Ghost Zone in this chapter as well as the next few.**

 **And yes he's going to run into Clockwork eventually. Maybe sooner, maybe later. Also hey I get to have fun theorizing on ghost anatomy and reproduction.**

 **FUN!**

 **I have a weird life. But quite frankly, I don't care! Tis' my life!**

 **Oh, more good news! I've actually begun working on a storyline for this!**

 **(More spontaneous cheering!)**

 **You want a disclaimer you go to chapter one. If you refuse then shame on you, shame on your family, and shame on your ghost cow!**

 **Especially the ghost cow!**

 **Anyway LET'S BEGIN!**

* * *

In most situations when you're lost and have absolutely no idea where you are, people will tell you that the first thing you should do is remain calm.

Danny was failing that miserably.

"No, no ,no." Danny held his head and stumbled backwards a few steps. He tripped on one of the stray rocks on the island and fell backwards landing on his butt.

He wanted to scream he wanted to cry, he wanted to yell about how this wasn't fair and didn't make any sense. He probably would have been hyperventilating if he still had to breath.

Danny tried to think, there had been a lot of light and pain. He remembered a girl's face. He must know her right? Why else would she have been there? He tried to remember what had happened before that but it felt like he was grasping at straws.

He felt like he had just woken up from a dream and he only had a few vague recollections, the most accurate being the final moments.

Danny stood up again and shook his head. Okay his name was Danny he knew that much. There had been an accident in a…. lab? Was that it? Why had he been in a lab. He wasn't old enough to work in a lab.

Or was he? He started feeling panic swelling in his chest again when he realized he couldn't even remember his age.

At this point he was ready to just curl up in a ball and hope for this to be some horrible dream and to wake up wherever he should be away from this madness of green and floating doors and rocks.

Danny fell to his knees and looked around blankly again. He felt as if there was a big piece of lead in his stomach. He put his face in his hands and then, he began to cry.

* * *

Meanwhile another ghost was flying through the ghost zone and she was quite bored to be honest.

Ember flew through the ghost zone. Her fiery hair streamed behind her and her guitar was on her back. As fun as it was to just rock out all day sometimes she just felt like it was repetitive and needed to get out.

She thought about going to see Youngblood but decided against it. While they did share a great dislike for adults and authority they didn't have much else in common. But he did like seeing her perform so maybe…

That was when she heard crying. It wasn't loud wailing, more like someone sobbing. She stopped and floated looking around in confusion.

It took her a moment before she spotted a white haired ghost on a barren rocky island not far below her. He had a black shirt and pale red pants. She stared for a minute but couldn't remember having seen this ghost before. That was weird she knew most of the ghosts around this area of the Zone.

Then a thought occurred to her. A ghost she had never seen before crying on a random rock. A new ghost maybe? She didn't exactly have particularly fond memories of her first moments in the Ghost Zone. She had spent about six hours shrieking in anger, crying, and stomping around before she calmed down.

Well she wasn't doing anything else and this new ghost looked like he was still a kid. At least he wasn't an adult. Also she would probably feel a bit guilty about leaving a new ghost who was confused and scared.

So she floated over and landed on the rock behind him. He didn't seem to notice her so she said, "Hey." still nothing. She narrowed her eyes a bit.

* * *

"Hey dipstick!"

Danny blinked and looked up. Standing a few yards from him was a girl with pale blue skin. She was wearing some punk rocker get up and had tattoos around her eyes, Her hair was blue and looked to be flaming. It looked like she had something strapped to her back maybe a guitar?

He fell backwards and stared up at the other ghost and rubbed his eyes a bit. She raised an eyebrow, "Let me guess you just died?" Danny nodded. "And you're scared, confused and probably in some sort of shock?" the girl ghost counted it off on her fingers. Danny nodded some more.

"Thought so, well I'm Ember Mclaine, and this is the Ghost Zone." She gestured around brazenly.

"Umm… I'm Danny, Danny…" He trailed off then felt panic creeping back into him, he couldn't remember his own last name. He grabbed his head and started to shake.

"Woah don't flip out on me dipstick." The girl started snapping her fingers at him. "Look it's not uncommon that you can't remember your last name, I couldn't when I first formed."

Danny stopped shaking and looked up at her in confusion, "Then how…"

"Do I remember it now?' Ember asked crossing her arms. "As time went on I started getting flashes of my life. You probably will too." She shrugged.

Danny got to his feet and walked to the edge of the rock with his shoulders slumped. He looked off into the murky green depths of the Ghost Zone. "So I'm a ghost I think I have that part figured out." He noticed his voice also had a bit of an echo sound to it now. He looked down at his pale and green tinted hands.

"Well at least you're not in denial." Ember said. "I've never actually seen a ghost like that but from what I've been told it usually doesn't go well." She looked off in another direction and said, "Well come on then dipstick, there's a guy who can explain this stuff a lot better than I can." She floated up in the air and looked down expectantly.

"Uhh, I don't know how to fly." Danny said and tried jumping in the air a few times.

"It's not that hard." She held her forehead for a second, before sighing and saying, "There's really not much to it just well, it's like walking you know how to do it, just will yourself to really."

Danny closed his eyes and just thought about going up. He didn't feel any different so he opened his eyes and was about to say he couldn't but he looked down and saw he was indeed floating several feet off the ground. He stared in surprise and tumbled backwards but as there was nothing to land on he just ended up doing a flip.

"See what'd I tell you babypop? Now come on." Ember started flying slowly in a direction and Danny tried floating after her obviously not quite used to the whole flying thing and obviously very off balance.

"So where are we going?' Danny asked wondering where exactly they were heading.

Ember glanced back at him "There's this ghost who knows literally everything, he'll be able to explain things to you." She told him.

"Well then, lead the way." Danny said and followed into the endless green abyss.

* * *

 **And that is the end of chapter two.**

 **Also he's meeting Clockwork sooner.**

 **XD**

 **But yeah I figured well who better to explain to new ghosts what exactly is going on. I also figured Clockwork would be all over this with this timeline's Danny being dead instead of a halfa.**

 **As he once said "time is a parade…I see it's twists and turns, how it bends" so I figured he would know that Danny would have been a halfa until I got a hold of the story line.**

 **Sorry Clocky.**

 **See you guys next time!**

 **R &R**


	3. Clockwork

**Sup guys here we are with chapter three of our riveting tale!**

 **I don't have much to say other than some stuff about my theories on ghost anatomy, reproduction (or forming) and about lairs.**

 **Anyway those theories are mine based on watching the show, reading other fanfics and reading the wiki.**

 **Basically if you see something that you read in another fanfic it's there because I like the idea I'm not going to pretend I came up with it. Maybe I made some tweaks but that will be it.**

 **Also since Danny is going to be living in the Ghost Zone that means that there is potential for him to meet more ghosts than he did in the show. So if you have any OCs I'm willing to add them in, just send me a PM with the bio.**

 **BUT NO MARY SUES. Meaning no halfas, completely over powered ghosts or super powered ghost hunters. I already worry about that enough while I'm writing Son Siblings I don't need it here too.**

 **I will take normal ghosts and normal ghost hunters.**

 **So disclaimer is in chapter one go there if you want it or be haunted by the ghost of chapters past!**

* * *

Danny followed Ember through the Ghost Zone for awhile. He wasn't quite sure how long they were flying for. There wasn't any sun or moon here. As they flew he saw countless more doors and islands just floating in the void.

He spent most of flight looking around in awe at his surroundings. They were strange to say the least. It looked almost like there was no gravity here.

He glanced at Ember. "So I'm curious, why didn't you ask me how I died.?"

Ember shot him a glance, "It's considered really rude to ask a ghost how they died. I wouldn't suggest doing it. Good thing you didn't ask me, considering you're new though I'd only punch your lights out." She smirked.

"Glad I didn't ask in that case." Danny gulped before looking ahead.

Not long after his brief conversation Danny eyes grew wide. Ahead of them large green gears were scattered around. The gears turned for no obvious reason, but behind them was what really caught his eyes.

It was a large tower like structure with a clock at it highest part. Adorned on the top were several green skeletons with scythes. It was big black and spooky. A bit stereotypical for a ghost really.

"Is that where we're going?" Danny asked Ember feeling a bit nervous now. Maybe she was leading him to some sort of trap?

"Yeah that's it." Ember said, "That's Clockwork's tower. He'll explain things to you, he normally does." She stared ahead, "Okay yeah he's a bit weird but he literally knows just about everything, if not everything."

"Huh." Danny said a bit skeptical, but well here he was a ghost so why not? Might as well see what this guy has to say.

He and Ember landed near the big wooden doors. The doors opened up as they walked up to them.

Danny snorted, "Okay this is seriously stereotypical of a haunted house." he commented.

Ember shrugged and walked into the darkness. Danny took one more look at the tower from the outside, shrugged and followed her in.

Inside the tower it was still pretty weird and creepy. There was the constant sound of gears grinding and a tick tocking. Gears lined the walls and floors and seemed to be in perpetual motion.

"Ahh, Ms. Mclain and young Daniel, welcome." A voice said. Danny looked up. An old ghost in a purple cloak floated down. His features were wrinkled and a long white beard hung down. His torso held a clock with a pendulum hanging off it His eyes were red and there was a black tattoo running over his left eye.

Danny's eyes widened in surprise. He glanced at Ember, "How…?" Ember shrugged, "Like I said dipstick, he knows everything."

Danny glanced back at at Clockwork just in time to see the old ghost change into a much younger one who looked around mid twenties to thirties. His mouth gaped in surprise.

"I am Clockwork, but you already knew that, I am the ghost of time." Clockwork said now changing into a young childlike ghost.

"Umm, nice to meet you?" Danny offered giving a shy and confused grin.

"Tea?" The ghost offered turning back into his adult form. He gestured to a nearby table with a tea set on it.

"Umm, sure." Danny shrugged, he couldn't remember if he liked tea or not so he figured might as well try it.

Ember regarded the two of them, "Well looks like this is sorted." She turned around and glanced back, "See you around babypop." She said and then flew off the way they had entered.

Danny sat with Clockwork at the table a bit discerned by Clockworks changing forms, as the ghost sipped his tea seemingly oblivious to the changes. The time master set down his cup and looked at Danny. "You are here to learn about the Ghost Zone and being a ghost." It was not a question.

"Uh, yeah." Danny nodded. An idea suddenly occurred to him, "Hey wait, if you know everything can you tell me about my life?"

Clockwork gave a small sad smile, "I'm sorry no, that is for you to find out on your own."

Danny slumped, "Darn. oh well it was worth of shot." Danny thought for a second, "Okay then what are all those doors for?"

"Those doors are lairs." Clockwork said simply, transforming into his old man form. "They are essentially a ghost's home. They are made specifically to mirror their owners wants. No doubt you will have one before too long. As to creating one it is simply a matter of concentrating your energy."

"Energy?" Danny asked, "What energy?"

"Ectoplasmic energy." Clockwork replied simply, changing into his childlike form once again. "If it wasn't already obvious you're not exactly made of flesh and blood anymore. Your soul or spirit or essence whatever you wish to call it, came here upon your living body's death. It imprinted on some of the ectoplasm that the Ghost Zone is made up of."

Danny looked down at his hand. He felt a bit weird thinking about it but there wasn't much he could do about it. "So ghosts are made when people die then?"

"That is one of the ways ghosts come about." Clockwork noted, taking another sip of his tea. "There are other ways as well, for instance when a story or a legend is repeated and believed enough it may be able to imprint on ectoplasm in this realm."

Danny's eyebrows rose in surprise, "How?"

"This universe and most others are separated into two parts, but some may have more I suppose." Clockwork stated transforming into his normal adult form, "There is the part where the living dwell, where they are born and live out their lives. Then there is the realm where the living may go where they die."

"May go?" Danny asked, "Where else can they go?"

"That is another matter entirely, I am still answering your previous question." Clockwork stated firmly.

"Sorry" Danny muttered, "Go on."

"The Ghost Zone is connected to the natural universe, so when there is an idea that is strong enough it can imprint on ectoplasm and take physical form." Clockwork continued. "The ghosts who form this way are normally extremely powerful." He finished.

"Some ghosts are stronger than others?" Danny asked.

"Yes there are several classifications or ranks of ghosts. The strongest of these is an S-class ghost. An S-class ghost is categorized by any ghost strong enough to generate a haunting aura, which is to allow their emotions to be transferred to others nearby." Clockwork explained.

"Huh." Danny said, "So what rank am I?"

"That is for you to find out, young Daniel." Clockwork told him.

"So when people die and when a story or idea is strong enough, that it?" Danny verified.

"Not quite", Clockwork once again became an old man. "There are ways for ghosts to reproduce. Neither is much like the human way but one is closer than the other. The one closer to the way humans reproduce is similar in that it requires two ghosts to have a connection of sorts, but it is a mental connection required not a physical one."

"Oh" Danny said quietly.

"The other," Clockwork continued seemingly ignorant of Danny's slight discomfort, "Is permanent duplication. Before you ask duplication is the process of making copies of yourself that are virtually you. Permanent duplication is when a piece of your core splits off and begins to form a new ghost. Similar to the original of course but still very much their own ghost."

"What's a core?" Danny asked.

"Very similar to a heart but not quite the same." Clockwork explained pouring himself more tea in the process, "While a heart keeps the organism alive, a core not only does that but also generates the ghosts energy without the necessity of breathing. Also depending on the type it will give certain powers such as pyrokinesis or cryokinesis."

Danny sat for a few moments processing everything. "Anything else important I should know?" He asked.

"Two things" Clockwork said, "Not all ghosts you meet will be as non aggressive as myself. Some may wish to fight you simply for the sake of fighting or because their obsession forces them to."

"Which is the other item," Clockwork commented before Danny could ask again, "An obsession is what drives a ghost on, without it they would fade. No I cannot tell you what yours is that too is for you to find out yourself."

"So that's it?" Danny asked, then a thought occurred to him.

"Wait", He pulled at his shirt, "Are my clothes a part of me?" He asked feeling a bit awkward asking the question.

"They're made of your ectoplasm yes." Clockwork said calmly, "But if you wish for a wardrobe change in the future you just have to concentrate on the appearance you wish your clothes to take."

Danny sighed in relief, wearing the same clothes for the rest of his existence seemed a bit strange.

He stood up and rubbed the back of his head. "Umm, thanks for the help Clockwork."

"Think nothing of it." Clockwork said, "I have explained things to many new ghosts over the years. It has become an honorary duty of mine I suppose."

"So bye then, I guess I better try to make a lair. Not much else to do I guess." He looked towards the door.

"Until we meet again Daniel." Clockwork nodded after him as he left and flew off into the zone still a bit wobbly.

Clockwork floated away from the table and to his viewscreen. He watched as a fiery haired, muscular figure faded from the screen. Another image took it's place. This image had a figure in dark silver armor and eyes that were completely black.

Clockwork smiled ruefully, "As one door closes another must open." He said sadly.

* * *

Danny flew through the Zone and finally managed to straighten out his flying. He sighed sadly, as helpful as his conversation with Clockwork had been he still had plenty of questions. On top of the list was who exactly was he?

Danny… what? Would he just be called Danny until the hypothetical day he remembered his name?

He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Maybe he could think of a name he could use. Something spooky probably? Danny Scary? No that didn't sound right. Danny Ghostly? No not quite but getting there.

Phantom?

Danny Phantom… Yeah that had a nice ring to it. He opened his eyes and smiled. He would be Danny Phantom.

* * *

 **And end!**

 **Ahh I had fun writing that.**

 **Also as it turns out I find it easier to write at school, seems to flow better. How wierd.**

 **But yeah we saw that Dan's out of the picture now. But who is this new villain? And will I ever actually get to point where he appears?**

 **Maybe?**

 **I don't know I'm not going to bring him in until later though.**

 **Hopefully this chapter was helpful. Any questions just PM me.**

 **Also my ghost ranking system and examples.**

 **D-class: weakest**

 **Ex: Ecto-pusses**

 **C-class: Strong enough to have a real form but still pretty weak.**

 **Ex: THE TERRIFYING BOX GHOST! BEWARE!**

 **B-class: Real form and some pretty decent power. Also in color**

 **Ex: Bullet, Johny 13, Bertrand**

 **A-class: Very powerful, able to command some lesser ghosts**

 **Ex: Walker, Dora & Aragon**

 **S-Class: Very powerful, able to generate a haunting aura, Usually very old**

 **Ex: Pariah Dark, Clockwork, Frostbite, Undergrowth**

 **That's all I got.**

 **SO, I do hope you enjoyed, until next time folks!**

 **Ciya!**

 **R &R**


	4. Afterlife

**Hey guys!**

 **So very good news! I got a new splint that allows me full access to 90% of my fingers! The last 10% is not to be mentioned under any circumstances. It is dead to us now.**

 **DEAD!**

 **So I didn't get any OCs sent in which, while saddening, will not deter me. But yeah this chapter is going to be Danny settling into his new afterlife in the Ghost Zone. I will add one OC who is based off something a friend of mine came up with and I think he will be a very amusing (albeit brief) addition to our exciting tale.**

 **Also the storyline will mix somewhat in with the canon story. Freakshow, Vlad, Pariah, and even Danielle will show up! "But FriTIk!" You say, "How could Danielle be in this if Danny is all dead, Vlad would have no reason to clone him if it was even possible?"**

 **Well I'm glad you asked, now let me tell you all about how I'm not going to tell you. Some of you might be able to piece it together based on some of the things I went over last chapter. But I'm not going to reveal how just yet as we got a lot to go before her appearance. So those of you who figured it out good for you!**

 **Also I took Sam out of the list of characters because with what's happening to the story I'm not sure how big a part she is going to end up being. Also so much potential in this to have him get with other more ghostly girls like Ember, or Dora or even Kitty.**

 **Anywho, where were we?**

 **I don't own Danny Phantom, if I did then the show would have a lot more badly timed jokes and dark humor.**

* * *

Being dead honestly wasn't as bad as most people would think it would be. Danny didn't really have much of a problem being among the recently, dearly departed. He supposed if he were to remember his friends and family he would miss them but no matter how hard he tried all he could remember were his final moments. Those final moments weren't exactly the nicest thing in the world so he stopped trying to remember after a little while.

After he had left Clockwork's tower and flown for a little while he had decided he should probably make himself a lair. He'd be damned and on a kids TV show if he was gonna spend his afterlife sitting around on one the many floating rocks in the zone. So he did what Clockwork said and tried to focus his energy. This took about five tries to successfully use his energy. But this success didn't last long when a beam just shot out his hand and off into the green depths of the Zone.

Hopefully that wouldn't hit anything.

But after several more attempts he finally managed to form a door. It didn't look like much. Just a basic black door with a silver door handle that glowed green around the edges. Nothing special about it whatsoever.

Danny hadn't quite been sure what he had been expecting inside of his lair but he certainly wasn't disappointed. The inside looked like an observatory. Minus the giant telescope obviously (where would it even look out?) but the dome had a bunch of tiny little stars covering it. Said dome was black save for the stars The circular wall was a silvery color similar to his hair.

The room had a desk on the left side near the threshold. On the far side from the door Danny noted there was a table with a couple of the right wall at about ninety degrees from the door was a little platform with a staircase leading up. The platform had low railings on all sides save the stairs. Upon further inspection Danny found that instead of a floor, there instead was a simple bed.

He questioned why the bed was there at first wondering if he even needed to sleep anymore. But soon he discovered even if he didn't need sleep anymore it was still good for just loafing around.

He had been a ghost for about two weeks now and was currently lying in said bed listening to a recording he got from Ember. He had run into her while he was out exploring and they had talked a bit more. From talking to her Danny got the idea she some problem with authority judging by the way she spoke of adults. She had lent him a radio along with a disc of her music. Ember had kind of become his friend despite the fact she insisted on calling him dipstick instead of Danny or even Phantom.

About a week earlier he had managed to give himself an outfit change. He now had black sweatpants with silver stripe going down the side of each leg. Instead of sneakers he now had white hiking boots with a black tongue and laces. His t-shirt was now black with silver on the collar and edges of his sleeves. He also had a DP in the center of his t-shirt (you all know what it looks like I'll skip describing it). He had a pair of black fingerless gloves on his hands as well.

He had been pretty pleased with it. He had shown it to Ember and she had asked, "You put your initials on your shirt? Ego much?" and smirked at him.

He huffed at her, "Hey I thinks it looks pretty cool."

"Maybe in your world dipstick." She responded but before the conversation could go any farther. They had been interrupted by a pale ghost in a white suit and a black hat. The ghost had a southern accent. After a brief and mostly one sided conversation about rules the ghost had simply vanished.

Danny blinked in shock and surprise for a second, "Who was that? And what was his issue?"

"That would be Walker." Ember ground out, "The Ghost Zone's warden."

"You sound like your good friends?" He asked sarcastically.

"His rules are all incredibly stupid." Ember muttered angrily her hair flaming up a bit more.

Danny crossed his arms, "How bad could they be?"

"One of them is that you're not allowed to eat cabbage." Ember deadpanned with hooded eyes.

Danny opened his mouth with a finger in the air, he held that for a second before closing his mouth and putting his finger down. "I don't have a response for that." He muttered.

"Exactly." Ember said.

Danny now got off his bed and stretched a bit. He wasn't sure if he had bones anymore but it still felt good to stretch out. He looked up at the starry ceiling. He wasn't quite sure why he had the stars there or why his lair looked like an observatory of some sort, but it just felt right for him. It felt familiar.

He stared a moment longer before walking to flying over to his door and floating out into the Ghost Zone. He couldn't seem to get lost. No matter how far he went he just had a feeling on how to get back. LIke a buzz in the back of his head. That was the best way he could describe it.

As he flew in a new direction he heard a heard someone talking. He slowed down and looked around trying to find the source. It revealed itself as a lone ghost in relatively basic attire. The ghost had crooked spectacles, green skin and blue hair. He sat at a singular long table on the otherwise bare rock and he seemed to be writing something.

Danny flew down to the ghost and stared for a moment. He seemed to speaking in some other language Danny didn't was tempted to interrupt but thought better of it. He had accidently disturbed The Behemoth a few days earlier and things had not gone well. Simply put it had ended with him flying full speed for his life away from the red multi armed monster ghost.

The ghost looked up, thus freeing him from continuing to question whether he should inquire. "Why hello there young one." The ghost said in a calm voice.

"Uh hi." Danny waved. "Umm sorry to bother you I should be on my way."

"Nonsense!" The ghost said standing and spreading his arms smiling warmly. "I so rarely get visitors!"

"Come take a seat." Danny suddenly found himself seated at the table across from the ghost. The table was filled with food now as well. There was fruit, bread, something that looked a bit like pizza covered in some sort of powder, and various other foodstuffs. Danny rubbed his eyes, this was getting weird.

"Help yourself to anything, except the bread!" The ghost suddenly sounded frantic about the last bit and gripped the table edge.

"Uh thanks." Danny said reaching out tentatively carefully avoiding the bread. "'I'll make sure to avoid the bread." he added.

"Good lad!" The ghost proclaimed smiling happily again. "Now what did you say your name was again?"

Danny rubbed the back of his head awkwardly biting into some sort of fruit. "Umm I didn't say what it was but my name's Phantom, Danny Phantom."

"Marvelous! How lovely to meet you young Phantom." The oddball ghost reached across the table and shook Danny's hand politely. "I am Bob the Determined, last acolyte of the sun god!"

"What sun?" Danny asked looking up into the Zone's swirling green void.

"Praise the sun!" Bob said raising his arms to the sky with his eyes closed, basking in non existent sunlight. "Silly boy that is why we can not eat of the bread for it is to be sacrificed to the almighty sun god so that the sun god may grant us a blessing when we face the tree that was, is and shall always be the moon in combat!"

"What." Danny asked staring in shock at the strange ghost.

"Yes all was going well if I recall. Then that boy showed up with his heavily armed friends. What was his name? Jeff, Joe? Something beginning with J. That poor deluded boy, he was convinced there was no sun god or moon tree!" Bob threw back his head and laughed loudly.

Danny was now scared and confused. Welp, he thought to himself, I'm done here, time to leave.

"Well this had been great Bob!" Danny said sliding out his chair, "But you know I gotta go, things to do ya know? So umm praise the sun", Danny halfheartedly raised his hands up briefly before putting them back down, "I'll see you around." With that Danny flew off into the Zone top speed.

Once he was out of sight of Bob's rock he sighed in relief and slowed down to stop and looked around at his surroundings. He was in a part of the Zone he hadn't explored yet. He caught sight of a big blue building that was made out of bricks. Windows decorated the first and second floors. As he moved closer he could read the words written in big letters on the front.

Casper High.

Suddenly he wasn't in the Zone anymore. He was looking at a big red brick building identical in all but color to the one in the Ghost Zone. He saw human kids milling about around him. He was standing next to a dark skinned boy in a red hat and yellow shirt and glasses who was staring down at an electronic device in his hand. On his other side was a girl he recognized. It was the girl who he was looking at before he died. She opened her mouth to say something.

Then he was back in the Zone. He blinked, grabbed his head and shook it a bit. That was weird. Was that a memory flash of his life? He rubbed his eyes then narrowed them. He glared at the building in front of him. Who were those people he was with? Why did he get a flash now when he had been trying for the past two weeks to remember something. He wanted answers.

Without another thought he flew towards the monolith like building.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap folks!**

 **AHH I gotta say it feels really good to finally write something. I mean honestly, doing school work has absolutely sucked cause I'm right handed. And guess which hand lucky me broke?**

 **Now then on the topic of Bob. He was based off several very strange conversations I had with a friend of mine concerning the sun god and the moon tree.**

 **That was weird day…**

 **Anyway that was just something fun I added in and quite frankly if we see him again it'll be more funny stuff. He's not a major character or even an important side character.**

 **Well I hope you guys enjoyed, until next time guys!**

 **PRAISE THE SUN!**

 **R &R**


	5. Bully

**Hiya kids this is an author's note!**

 **What?! That's crazy right?! I mean why would an author ever put a note with their personal thoughts before a literary piece. Come on that's just weird am I right?**

 **Moving on from me screwing around pointlessly... If it wasn't obvious at the end of last chapter Danny is going to be meeting Poindexter and maybe get a few more memory flashes.**

 **On a side note is anyone else bothered by the fact that they only really met once other than Reign Storm and that it immediately went south because of a misunderstanding. Honestly I felt they could've got along really well considering they both were bullied by guys bigger and stronger than them. (Well until Danny got powers but you know what I mean.)**

 **Also there were less reviews praising the sun than there should have been. You all disappoint me greatly.**

 **Moving on from my disappointment, I do hope I manage to do both Poindexter's slang and Danny's humor justice.**

 **Anyway we now come to dwell upon the topic of disclaimers, what is a disclaimer? What is the point of saying that I do not own something that it is already obviously not my due to the fact I am using a fan website.**

 **But there's an idea. What if the owner of a show or series is here writing on this website just to screw with people? I would for sure.**

 **Dwell on that.**

 **Story time!**

* * *

Danny entered the floating school with ease. The door wasn't even locked, not that he was complaining.

As he poked his head inside tentatively he was met with the sight of a bunch of what looked like teenage ghosts. But they didn't seem normal. They were all gray to varying shades. (AN: I know what you're thinking but no. Just no.) While he could understand some ghosts in the school being gray, the entire school seemed a bit odd.

Apart from being gray they seemed relatively normal, Danny noted. Well their clothes didn't seem really modern. A lot of the girls wore dresses and most of the guys had their shirts tucked in.

Danny paused. How would he know what was modern? He could barely remember anything from being alive. Nothing except his death and that memory he had just before coming in here. Maybe he should ask Clockwork about it. Actually the guy knew everything about every time period was there really a modern for him?

None of the ghosts had noticed him yet. Maybe he should go invisible? Danny had figured out the power early on but he never really had a need to use it. He figured he might as well, easier than explaining why he was there to all these other ghosts.

So he went invisible and slipped into the school.

As he sneaked through the halls invisibly his mind began to wander. Was this some sort of school young ghosts were supposed to come to? Clockwork hadn't mentioned needing to go to school now and Ember hadn't said anything about it either. Of course that was Ember, if there was a school then she probably spend most of her time ditching it. But that still left Clockwork.

More gray ghost students passed him. A thought occured. Maybe this was a ghost's lair. One that had been a teacher and when they died they still wanted to continue their teaching. But then who were all these other ghosts?

Then there was the fact that as soon as he looked at the school he had had a memory flash. He had recognized the girl from his last moments but who was the other kid?

So distracted by this was he that he hadn't noticed that he had wandered into a mostly empty hallway.

He did notice when he bumped into one of the other ghosts and fell backwards and landed on his rear end losing his invisibility in the process.

"Golly." The other kid said rubbing his head, "What hit me?"

The other ghost was a mix of black, white and gray, just like every other ghost at this school. He was a skinny kid with freckles and glasses. He had a plaid shirt tucked into his pants. All in all he looked like a stereotypical nerd.

"Uh hi." Danny waved awkwardly as the kid looked up at him. "Sorry I wasn't really paying attention and well you probably didn't see me cause I was you know, invisible."

The kid stared at Danny. He recognized several emotions cross his features including surprise and confusion.

"Umm, are you okay?" Danny asked, "You can still think straight right, I don't think I bumped into you that hard."

"No, I'm fine." The other kid shook his head. "It's just jee, nobody ever really apologizes to me."

"Wait, really?" Danny asked as he pulled himself to his feet giving the other boy a hand when he was standing. "Why's that? I mean I've never been here before but you seem okay."

The boy scowled angrily. "It's not that I'm a bad person, they are!" He ranted, "They've bullied me _forever_!" The other ghost emphasized forever, "Nothing ever changes, it's one thing after another. If they aren't pushing me around, they're encouraging it, they're all just the same. Each of them a bully."

Bully.

 _Danny felt himself slammed against a locker. He winced in pain, closing his eyes and letting out a hiss. He opened his eyes again and looked up in fear. A kid with blonde hair and a jock jacket who was much larger than he was held him by the front of his shirt and held him pressed against the locker. The boy let out a growl through clenched teeth and drew his fist back. Danny grabbed the big arm and tried to pry it off his shirt. The fist came flying forward…_

Danny blinked his eyes and stumbled. He held his head and shook it trying to focus. Was that another memory? Why was that kid beating him up? Who was he? And why was it everything he remembered just led to more questions!?

"Hey you okay?" The other ghost asked Danny noticing his sudden distress.

"I'm fine, I think." Danny said straightening up and rubbing his eyes, "Just a bit of a blast from the past."

"What?" The kid asked confused.

"Nevermind." Danny said, "So, I never did catch your name." He looked at the glasses wearing ghost expectantly.

"Oh, golly, sorry" The boy seemed to be a bit flustered. "My name's Sidney Poindexter." He held out his hand towards Danny.

"Danny Phantom." Danny shook the waiting hand.

"Sooo," he trailed looking around exaggeratedly, "What's with the school?" He glanced at Sidney from the corner of his eye.

Poindexter shrugged. "I don't know I've just been here." He put a finger on his chin,"Jeeper's I can't remember how long I've been here!" His eyes widened at the thought.

"Wait, are you serious?" Danny asked surprised, "You actually have no idea how long you've been in this school?"

"It's been a really long time I know that." Sidney said mournfully.

"Hold on a second, if you've been here a really long time, and everyone here treats you like trash, why don't you just, well I don't know leave?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Leave?" Poindexter asked dumbly as if he didn't understand the meaning of the word.

"Yeah you know, leave the building, exit, etcetera. Why stick around here when there's the entire Ghost Zone out there?" Danny pushed his point.

"I-" Sidney opened his mouth to answer but was quickly cut off by another louder and far ruder voice.

"Hey Poindexter!"

A big ghost came strutting into the hall like he owned the place. He was big and bulky and had a jock's jacket on and black hair. Once again if not for the gray, he might as well have been a regular human teenager.

Sidney spluttered at the sight of the larger ghost as Danny eyed the newcomer, he didn't like the vibe this guy gave off. This jock reminded him of that blonde guy he had just remembered. Honestly why couldn't he remember something useful? His death was traumatizing, he had seen a color version of the school at some point, and apparently he had been beat up by a big and buff blonde kid. Really useful stuff right there.

Also he was beginning to get why ghosts didn't want to talk about their deaths. His memory of his own experience just disturbed him more every time he thought about it.

Back to reality, the jock ghost had come to a stop in front of the pair. He crossed his arms and smirked. "Well geek, who's your friend here?" Everything about him radiated that he was in charge here and if you messed with him you'd be sorry.

Danny instantly disliked him.

Sidney opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off before he got so much as a syllable in. "Doesn't matter," The jock said, "He's just another wimp like you. Which brings me to why I'm here. I was just hanging out enjoying my day when I realized I wasn't enjoying it to the fullest!"

Sidney gulped and fear shown in his eyes.

"No, how could I enjoy any day to the fullest, when I'm not pounding you into the ground?" The last part he said much more darkly and leaned forward sneering.

Danny realized the guys intention and stepped in the way. "Hey what's your-" He was quickly thrown into the lockers at the side of the hallway.

 _Danny slumped to the ground rubbing his cheek and grimacing. He looked up in fear of more punishment to be dealt out unfairly. But the jock was turning away and facing a dark skinned boy with glass and a red beret._

He shook his head again and looked up to see the jock cracking his knuckles. (How does he that without bones?) The jock was stepping towards Sidney and drawing back his fist.

 _The blonde boy punched the kid with the red hat and glasses in the gut causing him to hunch over._

Sidney doubled over as the punch landed in his gut. He coughed and held his stomach where the punch had landed.

 _Danny watched helplessly as the jock picked up the red hatted boy and dumped him headfirst into a nearby trashcan._

The jock ghost shoved Poindexter sending him sprawling backwards. Danny felt something inside him roaring angrily. He had to stop this.

 _The blonde jock strode off laughing at the misery of the two boys he had just beat for no reason whatsoever._

Danny forced himself up. He couldn't just sit there but what could he do. He didn't think he was much stronger than Poindexter.

Right?

Sidney had pushed himself back up and the bulky jock pulled back his fist for another punch.

Danny saw the fear in Sidney's eyes and felt something inside him snap.

Just as the jock was about to throw the punch he felt something grab his arm.

He looked back in surprise to see Danny with his right hand holding his arm back. But something was different. His glowing green eyes now blazed with energy so brightly it was hard to see the whites or pupil. His right hand was surrounded by green energy with his other a similar state.

"Back off now." Danny's echoey voice commanded. "This is your first and last warning."

"What are you gonna do nerd?" The jock asked not understanding what was coming in the next few moments.

Danny smirked, "I was kinda hoping you would ask that."

Danny tensed himself. He had no previous fighting experience that he could remember and had only been a ghost for a couple of weeks. Yet despite these two seemingly crushing realisms he was sure he could win.

The jock spun and brought his left arm around aiming for Danny's face.

Danny ducked under the punch letting go of the jocks right arm causing him to spin around from the punches momentum and come to a stop facing away from Danny once again.

Danny took the opportunity and side kicked the back of the jocks left knee causing the other ghost to topple over and kneel with his left leg on the ground and crouched on his right leg. The jock turned his head to look at Danny only to get a glowing green fist to the face.

The jock collapsed fully this time and held his nose. He moaned pitifully on the floor. Danny looked down at him waiting to see if he would get back up.

"You know if I knew you were gonna be so slow and weak, I would've let Poindexter beat you up." Danny said mockingly trying to get on the jock's nerves by making a jab about the kid he bullied managing to beat him.

It worked pretty well to say the least. The jock let out an almost animalistic growl and surged back to his feet and sent a punch towards Danny's face. He caught the fist before it made contact and held the arm there as it trembled in effort. The bulky ghost in front of him stared in shock and rage.

"How the-?" The jock managed through his anger and confusion clenching his teeth.

"To tell you the truth I don't really know myself!" Danny said pleasantly, "But I'm not complaining." He grinned.

Danny pulled the jock forward and punched him in the face again with enough force to send the larger (but obviously weaker) ghost stumbling backwards with his arms waving exaggeratedly trying to catch his balance.

Danny held out both his hands and the green energy around them flared. He didn't know what gave him the idea to try this it just felt right. A ectoplasmic blast shot forward in a beam at the jock hit him full in the chest sending him crashing into the lockers on the wall and leaving a noticeable dent.

The jock slumped down from his body shaped indentation and muttered landed in a heap on the floor looking quite pitiful. Ectoplasm dripped down from his now crooked nose.

Danny felt whatever it was that drove little display disappear and the energy surrounding his hands dissipated. He didn't feel any weaker just lest driven.

He looked back at Poindexter who stared at him in shock.

"Holy moley!" The nerdy ghost exclaimed, "How in the Zone did you do that?"

Danny smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Like I said, I honestly have no idea. I just felt like I had to stop him…" He trailed off. Danny shook himself. "I was being serious when I said he wasn't that tough though. Why don't you stand up to him?"

Poindexter stared at a loss for words. "He's bigger than me…" He said with uncertainty.

"Yeah well he's bigger than me too." Danny said with a shrug, "Do me a favor and don't let this knucklehead," He jabbed a thumb at the jock who was mumbling what sounded like twinkle twinkle little star, "Shove you around anymore. But if you do need help well I'd be willing to lend a hand." He raised a hand and turned it invisible briefly.

Danny was actually feeling a lot of inner turmoil right now. What was all that? Why'd I feel like I had to do something? Maybe he should talk to Clockwork or Ember, or maybe Bob's sun god had granted him it's blessing? Yeah probably not that last one. Clockwork or Ember it is then.

"Well it was nice meeting you Poindexter," Danny said. "Good luck with this jerk in the future."

"Yeah, umm sure." Poindexter managed still in a relative state of shock.

Danny turned away to leave and started walking down the hall. "Hey, Phantom." He heard Sidney call out.

"Yeah?" He asked and looked over his head.

Poindexter looked sheepish and pressed his finger together, "Thank you."

Danny smiled. "No problem."

A few minutes later Danny was flying through the Ghost Zone back to his lair. Protecting Poindexter like that made him feel good. He couldn't quite describe the feeling. But the fight with the jock did get him thinking.

Clockwork said there would be more aggressive and violent ghosts. He thought as he flew, not even noticing his legs fusing together into a single tail. Maybe I should trying learning how to fight better? Who knows what kind of ghosts are out there and how strong they'll be.

He narrowed his eyes. Whatever was to come in the future he would be ready for it.

Danny Phantom soared into the green depths of the Ghost Zone.

* * *

 **And that'll do it for this chapter.**

 **Longest chapter yet! Yay!**

 **Also I am so, so sorry it took this long. I've been busy with studying for one test after another, with finals coming up my teachers have been shoving everything they can down our throats.**

 **Not to mention I found difficulty (if you can believe it) in writing Poindexter's character. I hope I did him right…**

 **Anyway this marks the close of my introductory arc. The next chapter is going to skip a few months into the future to when Danny is completely settled into his afterlife.**

 **I'm debating whether or not I should put in a chapter showing what's happening in Amity Park with no Danny Phantom to defend it from the sudden and unexpected ghost attacks. If you want that chapter let me know in the reviews**

 **Also anyone have an idea for how I can put Skulker in this story? I honestly can't figure out how I want him to come into it. I mean Danny's not a halfa so no need to hunt him for being a rare creature…**

 **Oh well, Reviews!**

 **Otaku4lifeeee** **: You can worry not as well! For my chapters continue despite injury! Also I'm sorry for your leg, broken bones suck right?**

 **Charmeleon** **: Ain't no rest for the wicked ;). But I am glad you like my writing style! I think it's improving the more I write…**

 **Kimera20** **: Thanks and I'm glad You think I'm a great author.**

 **And that all for now folks!**

 **See ya next time!**

 **R &R**


	6. Human World or Bust

**Hello my most likely nerdy and proud friends!**

 **If you are neither nerdy and/or proud that greeting does not apply but hello all the same!**

 **Here we are with the new chapter and I've managed to avoid serious OCs so far! I'm so proud of myself!**

 **Also I've been having some trouble checking my reviews. Not sure if everyone was having it but does anyone know what was going on with reviews last week? I mean it's fixed now but I had no idea what was going on with it.**

 **Anyway this chapter is going to be about a month after the last chapter.**

 **I should probably give a bit of a timeline so far…**

 **Okay school started August 16, 2004 Danny was already a student at Casper. He died on August 21, 2004. He has now been dead almost a month and a half so it's now September 29, 2004 soon to be October (obviously). Oh and I'm not going to follow the original progression of events from the show. So no complaining.**

 **Oh and we're going to see a bit from Amity Park. Hopefully I can display the emotions right. Also have the right technology and whatnot for the time. I was still a little young but I do remember cruddy video game graphics, not being able to use the internet when someone was on the landline and cell phones when you dropped them from two feet onto a table top.**

 **Any questions?**

 **No?**

 **Good, now then time for the chapter!**

* * *

"So let me get this straight." Danny said to Ember as he floated in a sitting position in his lair. Ember was lying stretched out across his couch. At least she had kicked her boots off when she had come in. Unfortunately she had kicked them at him.

"Dipstick I already explained it. How hard can it be to understand?" She asked him. She lay with her head propped up on a pillow, her arms separating head and pillow, her legs stretched down right to the armrest.

"Just processing." Danny rubbed his temples, "You heard about a stable portal, that is almost always open."

"Mmm-hmm" Ember nodded.

"And now you have the bright idea to go to the human world, which will have lot's of humans, who may or may not want to end you, and become a rock star there. Also use your powers to try to take over the world, which even I can see has a lot of potential to end badly." Danny continued.

"Yep." Ember popped the 'p'.

"And to top it all off, you want me to come with you, to act as security for your shows." Danny finished.

"You're the one who's been learning how to fight." Ember said, "I'm just helping you find a use for it."

"I'm just going to flat out say it." Danny decided, "This is a bad idea."

"Oh where's your sense of adventure?" Ember asked trying to appeal.

"Six feet under."

"Dark." Ember said swinging her legs off the couch.

"Ember, I just don't think it's a good idea to go to the human world." Danny had given up at trying to think about his old life. What was the point? He was dead there wasn't a way back to whatever his life had been. All remembering was going to do was make him depressed at what he had lost.

"Also", Danny continued, "You want to try to take over the world? I mean why would that even be a good idea?"

"They're just humans." Ember shrugged.

"Yeah and what would you do once you take over the world anyway?" Danny pressed.

"I figured you might say something logical like that, so I came up with a back up plan." The ghost girl smirked before sticking her fingers in her mouth and whistling.

A green form on Danny's bed pepped its ears up at the sound. A small green head shot up and looked around before speeding across the room and licking Ember's face.

"You're going to use Cujo against me? Really?" Danny deadpanned as he watched Ember pull his dog away from her face.

Oh yeah he had a dog now. That had happened.

To put a long story in simpler terms, a few week and a half earlier he had been flying through the ghost zone after checking in on Poindexter. Things were going good for the ghostly nerd, but that's besides the point. Danny had been suddenly been tackled by a gargantuan glowing green dog with red eyes and a spike collar.. It was a bit terrifying to say the least.

But instead of attempting to tear him the apart, the giant dog started licking his face. After a short time the dog let a thoroughly slobbered Danny get up off the ground. To add to his surprise the massive mastiff shrunk down into a tiny little puppy. The puppy jumped into his arms and yipped up at him and gave him one more lick for good measure.

Now Danny had no pet owner experience that he could remember. Not that it would come in handy dealing with a ghost dog who could grow to massive sizes at the drop of a hat. Though admittedly, the ectoplasmic green puppy was for the most part a happy little dog. He seemed to transform into his larger more terrifying form when he felt threatened or when he felt really, really excited.

None the less, Danny had brought the ghost dog home with him and had named him Cujo. Ember wasn't exactly overjoyed to be covered in dog drool the first time she had met the dog but she hadn't threatened to roast him since then. That had to be a positive.

Also Cujo did a wonderful job keeping the Box Ghost very far away. Seriously, what was that guy's problem?

"Come on baby pop", Ember said holding Cujo in front of her face facing Danny, "Cujo really wants to be a guard dog…"

Said puppy looked confused but let out a small bark anyway. Darn it Phantom, don't give in, don't give in!

"I still don't know…" Danny started but didn't sound like he had any heart, or core as it were, in it.

"I'll teach you how to play guitar too." Ember said to close the deal.

"Deal." Danny caved. A dog, a girl and guitar lessons? What teenager stood a chance?

"Great." Ember smirked and set Cujo down on the couch where the ghostly puppy curled up in a ball again. Danny was still fairly certain ghosts didn't need to sleep but Cujo sure did a pretty good imitation after a day of playing ecto-ball.

"So when we heading out on this little world conquering trip of yours?" Danny inquired, he wasn't exactly all for taking over the world but it wasn't the ghost world. Also odds were something would go terribly wrong.

"About a week so pack your bags." Ember told him getting up and walking to where her boots had landed after Danny had dodged them.

"I don't really have anything to take with me though…" Danny trailed off thinking.

"It's a figure of speech dipstick." Ember rolled her eyes at the younger ghost.

"I'm fairly certain it's literal too." Danny said smirking at her.

"Whatever." She said pulling her high heeled boots back on.

"So when do I get guitar lessons?" Danny asked curiously. He hadn't really thought about it before but now that he had the idea he was interested.

"We can start once I have everything worked out." Ember told him opening his door and glancing back. "See you around."

"Bye." Danny waved as she left and the door closed behind her. He finally floated down to the floor and looked around his mostly empty lair and sighed. One week.

"I need a hobby..." He thought out loud.

* * *

Amity Park…

Thirty nine days.

It had been exactly thirty nine days since she had got her best friend killed and Sam still couldn't stop thinking about it. She didn't admit to many mistakes but this time she couldn't help herself.

Tucker, Jazz the Fenton parents, heck even her parents had all told her it wasn't her fault.

"It's just as much my fault as yours, I should've tried harder to tell him it wasn't a good idea." Tucker had told her trying to take a least some of the blame off her shoulders.

"Danny wouldn't want you to blame yourself Sam, and if he was here he would tell you that." Jazz said trying to appeal to her memory of her best friend.

"It's our fault. We were the ones who made that thing." Danny's mother had told her while his dad for once sat quietly.

"Sammykins it's hardly your fault _those people_ made something dangerous enough to actually kill someone!" Her mother said, trying to pin it on the Fenton parents.

No matter what any of them said she couldn't help but feel like she was the true guilty party even if others contributed to it.

The funeral had been a week after the event. Closed casket. When Danny had stumbled out of the portal moments before dying he hadn't exactly looked pleasant and she couldn't get the image of him covered in electrical burns and his skin charred. It haunted her dreams at night.

Everything just felt different now. There was no Danny to play mediator when she and Tucker started arguing about meat and vegetables. No Danny to complain about parents with or to spew out some pun or joke pertaining to the situation. No Danny looking at the stars with the dream of being an astronaut that would now never be fulfilled.

Even school was different. At first Dash had joked about "Fentina" being too scared to come to school and talked about how much of a wimp he was. Sam had kicked him in the balls for that. Kicked him really hard. When the truth that he had died came to light Dash got quiet for a little while. It hadn't lasted but Sam had to wonder what had gone through the bully's head during that time.

But the biggest difference of all were the ghosts.

It hadn't been really noticeable at first. Just a few people saying they saw green blobs floating or crawling around. They were labeled as crackpots at first. Even the Fentons, the so called ghost experts, ignored them but Sam guessed it was due to the fact they felt their profession was one of the main reasons their son was dead so they tried to avoid it.

But the reports kept coming in and the Fentons took up the case and managed to find and capture one of the blobs. A few tests later revealed it was made of ectoplasm with an ecto-energy signature running through it causing it to move around. At first people scoffed at this. Ectoplasm wasn't real. That would mean ghosts were real.

So those who saw things called the Fentons and they would come and nab whatever bunch of green goop was causing the problem. Then cart it off back home.

Things continued like this for some time until the Lunch-Lady came.

* * *

 _~Flashback~_

September 2, 2004

Sam poked at her food. Or at least she considered it food. Several people had called it garbage. She had started a petition to get a more healthy change to the menu. Danny had signed when she first started at the beginning of the year a couple days into the first week.

She sighed, in the past week and a half she had found herself eating less. She just didn't feel hungry that much. Tucker sat down across from her and she waited to hear him complain about the food.

When he stayed quiet and just played around with his PDA instead she raised an eyebrow at him.

Noticing her glance he looked up, "What?"

"You're not gonna complain about the food?" Sam questioned him.

"No." Tucker responded, "Don't get me wrong I absolutely hate it but I'm not going to start and argument that isn't going to end anytime soon."

Sam opened her mouth but thought for a second and closed it. She honestly had no argument for that. Danny had always managed to sort out any problems between the two of them, and well he wasn't here to do that anymore.

Tucker noticed the look on Sam's face, "Hey at least he doesn't have to put up with us now. Wherever he is, I'm sure he's happier.

* * *

Ghost Zone…

Danny flew away as fast as he could. "Would you just knock it off!" He shouted at the blue ghost in overalls following him.

"NOT UNTIL YOU TREMBLE BEFORE ME!" The ghost shouted back.

"DUDE! You aren't that scary!" Danny called back at him.

"BUT I AM THE BOX GHOST MASTER OF ALL THINGS RECTANGULAR AND SQUARE! WHAT COULD BE SCARIER THAN ME?!" The Box Ghost cried back.

"Dying for one." Danny muttered unhappily.

* * *

Casper High, Amity Park…

Sam sighed, she wished she could think of it like Tucker but she just couldn't be so optimistic about it and think Danny was in a better place.

She took a look around the lunchroom and noticed everyone either glaring at their food or getting up to throw it away. She seethed inside, didn't they know this was much healthier than eating meat full of fat? Not to mention much more ethical than eating innocent animals.

Her eyes wandered over to the kitchen window and widened. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. Yep she wasn't imagining things. There was a green lady with a hairnet and gloves floating in the kitchen with her back turned to the cafeteria.

She looked around the rest of the lunchroom to see if anyone else had noticed. Everyone else seemed to be too focused on being unhappy about their meal. The bunch of ingrates. But she supposed it served a purpose if it kept them distracted from whatever was in the kitchen.

"Tucker." She said to get the techno-geeks attention. He looked up from his PDA again with a questioning look.

She looked back at the kitchen to make sure the apparition was still there. Yep. She turned her gaze back to Tucker, "Okay whatever you do don't freak out but look over at the kitchen." She pointed at the window.

Tucker's eyes widened and he opened his mouth as if to scream but Sam put her hand over it before he could make a sound. "Did you not hear any of what I just said?" She hissed.

She removed her hand when she was sure Tucker wasn't going to scream. He took a big gulp of air.

"Who or what is that?!" he hissed back at here.

"I don't know, but you know how all the green blobs have been showing up around town and Danny's parents said they were made of ectoplasm?" She asked.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying." He gaped at her with wide eyes.

"If you think I'm saying that the floating green lady in the kitchen is a ghost then yes." She said with lidded eyes.

"But ghosts aren't real!" Tucker protested in a loud whisper.

She looked at him for a second before his eyes widened.

"Oh…" Remembering exactly how their mutual best friend had died a mere week and a half ago. Turning on a _Ghost_ Portal.

"Come on." she ordered him standing up and focusing on the kitchen door.

"What are you planning." Tucker worried.

"Let's go talk to it maybe we can find out what it wants." She told him and started walking towards the door.

Tucker gulped, "Why do I hang out with you?"

They entered the kitchen soundlessly and got a much better look at the ghost. She had white hair and had wrinkles so they assumed she was old. Apart from the green skin and well gloating she looked like a normal cafeteria worker.

The ghost looked behind her at Sam and Tucker. She smiled kindly, "Excuse me dearies, I'm a bit confused, you see todays supposed to be meatloaf! But I can't seem to find any." She looked worried suddenly, "Don't tell me the menu's been changed!?"

"Yeah she changed the menu." Tucker pointed at Sam. Sam face palmed and glared at him.

"Really?" She asked, but Tucker shrugged, "What, she asked."

They turned their attention back to the Lunch Lady and gulped and stepped back. Her white hair now seemed to be flaming and her red eyes blazed.

"THE MENU HAS BEEN THE SAME FOR FIFTY YEARS!" She roared in anger her voice seeming to shake the room, "HOW DARE YOU CHANGE IT."

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other and came to a silent agreement. Time to run like hell.

They turned and ran out of the kitchen as pots, pans, plates and various other kitchen items started to float and orbit around the room.

As soon as they got out they closed the door behind them with their backs pressed against it.

"Okay now what do we do?" Tucker asked her.

"I got an idea." She pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open and dialed the Fenton Works number.

She took a breath and pressed the phone to her ear and listened to it ring.

* * *

 _~Present Day~_

The Fentons had come as soon as she called them and told them what was happening. It still took them a decent five minutes to arrive at the school and by then most of the student body had been rudely introduced to the existence of ghosts.

The ghost hunting couple broke the door down weapons blazing. At first it seemed like they were actually succeeding with stopping the ghost. Well until all the meat that Lancer and the other teachers had hidden the the teacher's lounge. Damn hypocrites.

The Lunch Lady surrounded herself with meat and became some sort of monster like thing. The meat monster leveled a third of the school before the Fentons managed to drive it off with their Ecto-Bazookas. No one knew where the Lunch Lady had disappeared to but one thing was obvious. Ghosts were real and they were in Amity Park. No one could deny it anymore.

Sam and Tucker had gone to Fentons and asked if they could do anything to help and well they were obliged. Maddie gave them weapons and martial arts training and Jack just kind of blathered on about ghosts in an attempt to explain how to fight them. Needless to say Maddie's portion went better.

So while they still went to school (some classes had been cancelled due to the damages) they now moonlighted as ghost hunters.

Sam had a purple jumpsuit with the Fenton Works logo on her suits left shoulder. The gloves, boots and belt were black. The suit had a hood that came up as well as a pair of goggles. Tucker had a similar outfit only in orange. Why the hood and goggles? She was fairly certain her parents wouldn't approve of her extra curricular activities

Ghost hunting was far from easy. Well the blob like ones were easy admittedly but the bigger ones they had run into so far like Technus when he tried to take over the Fenton's technology the first time they met him.

They had yet to actually catch any bigger and more sentient ghosts but they couldn't do much about it at this point. The capture device the Fentons had designed called the Fenton Thermos wouldn't function for some reason. They were working on it of course but all they could do at this point was to drive the bigger ghosts back. Sometimes into the Ghost Zone sometimes just away from people.

Sam had learned one thing through all they had been through thus far and that was that ghosts and anything to do with them such as _Ghost Portals_ were evil.

* * *

Ghost Zone one week later…

Danny stared into the swirling green vortex floating in front of him. Ember was right, it was wide open. And it looked pretty stable, but it was hard to tell with portals. But he hadn't seen many so who was he to judge?

"So what's on the other side that keeps this thing stable?" Danny asked Ember. She had her guitar strapped to her back and a few punk looking ghosts carrying other assorted musical equipment. Danny wasn't carrying much save Cujo who was safely tucked under his arm. The little puppy had his tongue out and tail wagging and looked very excited for this adventure.

"Kitty was the one who told me." Ember said referring to Johnny 13's green haired purse wielding girlfriend. "Who heard about it from Johnny, who heard about it from Technus who supposedly went through. Apparently there's a lab of some sort on the other side."

 _Lab… Portal…_

Danny shook his head. He didn't want any more memory flashes. He was happy with his afterlife he didn't need memories of his actual life rubbing in his face what he can't have back.

"So how do we get through the lab?" He asked, if there were humans there things would probably go south quickly.

"What do you think dipstick." Ember rolled her eyes, "We'll just turn invisible and intangible and slip right past any humans that might be in there."

Danny mentally scolded himself for missing the obvious answer.

"Well then," He gestured at the portal with a bit of a smirk, "Ladies first."

Ember sighed and rolled her eyes again and turned invisible and went through. Danny, Cujo, and her band following behind her into the human world.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap folks!**

 **I'm quite proud of this chapter if I do say so myself... Which I do.**

 **But, *gasp* Danny's helping Ember!? Sam and Tucker are ghost hunters?! What could this possibly lead to!?**

 **Well I could tell you and spoil the surprise but it'll be much more fun to let you suffer and try and come up with what's going to happen! Feel free to guess. I will say this though, we will hear some mention of Vlad next chapter but the fruitloop won't show up just yet.**

 **Also gonna mention this again I am willing to take minor OCs for this story if you want to send one in. Just shoot me a PM with a bio of the character. Once again, no halfas, ghost hunters with super powers, or S-class ghosts. Normal ghost hunters and normal ghosts heck maybe even a normal human I will take.**

 **Anyways, reviews!**

 **Kimera20:** **That is actually a pretty good idea… I just might try that thanks!**

 **J of Darkness** **: Hopefully the reactions were good. I tried to keep Sam and Tucker in character. Quite frankly, I feel I did a good job with Sam. Also thanks for the recommendation.**

 **Charmelon** **: An interesting idea except I haven't been the biggest fan of Skulker x Ember. Don't know why just never appealed to me. Also as for bumping into him, and Skulker getting angry, that might be a good way for them to meet.**

 **Wolfeather101:** **I might try that idea in the future just not for Skulker.**

 **Well thanks for the reviews everyone and I hope to see you all next time!**

 **Until then, peace!**

 **-FriTik**

 **R &R**


	7. Welcome To Amity Park

**Howdy folks!**

 **It's me FriTIk!**

 **FriTik the fanfiction writer :P**

 **Anyone who get's where that came from, I congratulate you.**

 **Anyway new chapter! *insert cheering sounds of your own choice*.**

 **Now let's go over what happened last time…**

 **Ember convinced Danny to go to the Human World (Earth).**

 **We got a look in on Amity Park during the time Danny's been dead.**

 **Danny and Ember are entering the Human World with her band and Cujo.**

 **Also I should mention her band isn't going to really play a part. They're kinda just going to be there…**

 **Also thank you to WarrioroftheMushroomKingdom for sending in an OC. I am sorry but they won't be in the story for a little while I need to figure out what their purpose will even be.**

 **You see I don't have a problem with OCs as long as either;**

 **-They're actually useful to the plot and further the story**

 **-They're just there for shits and giggles (ex: Bob the Determined from chapter four)**

 **Yeah just thought I should mention that. Also a note all OCs will either be minor or support character or a villain for an arc or two.**

 **Now should I do a disclaimer yay or nay?**

 **NAY! I already did that in early chapters just go back there if that be what you seek.**

 **And without further delay here's the new chapter!**

* * *

As soon as Danny got a look at the lab he had a very bad feeling.

This may be due to the fact that the tables were covered with machinery and vials and _ectoplasm._ Or perhaps it was caused by the _many shiny weapons_ scattered across the floor, tables and hanging on the walls.

Something the place seemed familiar to Danny but he shook it off. He had died in a lab, he did not need any more memories about that place. Also he didn't want to have a memory flash in room filled with _weapons and weird machinery._

He didn't see Ember anywhere but was probably invisible so that was a given. He felt something squirm under his arm and whimper slightly. He couldn't actually see Cujo but invisibility didn't stop sound or movement.

Danny decided it would be best to get out of the lab as soon as possible and then find Ember and her band. Of course the band could still be in here with him and so could Ember for that matter…

Invisibility was confusing.

He turned his body intangible and kept his invisibility up and flew straight up. He passed through the ceiling and through a living room and then a hallway, an attic and finally the roof. He winced as light hit him full in the face. He squinted as his eyes adjusted.

Danny looked out across a city. Buildings and streets stretched out in all directions. He dropped his invisibility and stared. He wasn't quite in awe, actually he wasn't quite sure what he felt looking out over the human world.

Danny stood for another moment before he caught sight of Ember a few buildings down. Cujo squirmed out of his arms barked and flew over. Danny chuckled, it was raining cats and dogs or at least ghost dogs. Danny took to the air himself and his legs merged together into a ghostly tail. He followed Cujo towards the rock star ghost.

He landed next to her on the building as Cujo started sniffing the roof. Her band was nowhere in sight.

"So, what's your plan?" He asked Ember with a quirked eyebrow.

"I sent my band to start setting up. I'm going to see if I can get us any record deals, and you can come with me." She told him.

"You planned this out…" He muttered, "What are we gonna do about my hair, and yours for that matter?"

"I'm going to pass mine off as special effects, as for you... Maybe you should get a hat and sunglasses?" She suggested.

"A hat and sunglasses?" He asked, "I don't know, that seems kind of dull…"

"That's the idea dipstick." Ember said turning around and stalking away from the roofs edge as Danny turned to follow her.

"It's going to be hard enough to pass me and the band off as regular humans, even with saying we use makeup and special effects. But you're going to be backstage most of the time so not much to worry about there." Ember explained. "So when you're out in public the hat and sunglasses should cover things. Or you could wear a hoodie."

Danny thought about it. "Well that should work for me. But we still have Cujo to worry about." He jabbed his thumb at the green dog who was scratching behind his ear.

"Just keep him out of sight dipstick, have him go invisible if you're out in public." Ember explained.

Danny sighed. That was going to be easier said than done. Cujo was a pretty hyper little puppy.

"Hey, when are you going to give me those guitar lessons?" Danny questioned the rock star.

Ember rolled her eyes. "Really we're in the world of the living and on the brink of potentially ruling it and you want to know when you can have the guitar lessons I said I would give you?"

"Umm, yeah." Danny nodded.

Ember sighed. "We'll start once we get everything set up for the concert."

Danny grinned.

* * *

 _Maddie's POV, one day later…_

Light flashed across Maddie Fenton's face as she worked on the device in front of her. It was a ghost tracking device that would not only locate ghosts but also give an approximation of their power level.

She gave a small smile when the screen lit up and a radar popped up with a set of numbers in the corner currently set at 0.00. She sighed and put her tool down and pulled her goggles and jumpsuit hood off. She looked over at the portal on the lab wall with a mixture of pride and contempt.

It was her and Jack's greatest achievement.

But it had taken her baby boy from her.

They had worked for years on it. Since college with the proto portal. They had been trying to make a full size working one once they finished school but had no success. They thought they had finally had it back in August but it had turned out to be another flop. She and her husband had fallen into a depression of sorts. The corner of her mouth tightened at that thought. Whatever they had felt when they failed again had been nothing compared to the emotional trauma of losing a child.

She was brought out of her thoughts when the phone started ringing. She sighed and walked over the it's place on the messy table. It had been upstairs but once ghosts started appearing she had brought it downstairs so they would hear it when a call came in about a ghost appearance.

She smiled bitterly, she and Jack had got what they wanted. Ghosts appearing daily, the portal working, the town no longer thought they were crazy and actually needed their help. All it had cost was her youngest child. She would trade it all just to be able to hold her son one last time.

She picked up the phone.

"Hello, Fenton Works, Maddie Fenton speaking." She spoke into the phone with a neutral tone.

" _Ah Maddie my dear, how fortunate to speak with you!"_ A smooth and familiar voice said over the line.

Maddie's eyes widened as she recognized it and therefore the speaker. "Vlad, Vlad Masters?" She said in shock. Neither her nor Jack had heard from their college friend in years. Not since the incident with the proto portal.

" _But of course."_ Vlad said over the line. _"It has been awhile hasn't it my dear."_

"Yes, I suppose it has..." Maddie said feeling a bit strange at how Vlad kept calling her dear.

" _How have you been? It has simply been too long since we've spoken."_ Vlad continued.

"I've been better, me and Jack both for that matter." Maddie told him.

" _Ah yes how is Jack these days? Still bumbling around I suppose."_ His voice sounded a bit strained.

"He's actually been a lot quieter recently." Maddie said trying to keep herself neutral.

" _Is that so? How interesting… But to the reason for my call. In a few weeks I will be hosting a little reunion for our college class. I was hoping you could come along."_ Vlad explained.

"I'm sorry Vlad, but I'm going to have to decline it really isn't a good time for us right now. There was an incident in the family recently and work has been increasing recently." She Vlad, catching the fact he didn't mention Jack in his invitation but not mentioning it.

" _An incident? Nothing too bad I hope?"_ Vlad said sounding slightly worried.

"Extremely bad wouldn't cover it." She said quietly. "There was an accident in our lab, Jack and I were out, our son, Danny, was showing his friends our Ghost Portal."

" _Ghost Portal?"_ Vlad said sounding _very_ interested.

"We've been trying to make a fully functioning one for years and well I guess we got what we wanted." Maddie said with bitterness in his voice.

" _My dear what happened?"_ Vlad said sounding sympathetic mostly but a hint of intrigue still in his voice.

"Danny went inside, his friends said he was going to try in fix it." In actuality it was Sam who came up with the idea but she didn't blame the girl, she had no idea what was going to happen. Still no need to mention that to Vlad, "It turned on while he was inside and he didn't…" She broke off not wanting to say anymore.

" _OH, oh my, I am so terribly sorry for your loss. If there were anything I could do to help..?"_ Vlad said offering his condolences.

"It's fine." She said trying to keep her voice from cracking, "You don't need to do anything Vlad. I'm sorry we can't make your reunion…"

" _It's fine my dear, I understand completely."_ Vlad said over the line.

Before she could say anything else the radar on the tabletop started beeping. It was picking up a signal.

"I'm sorry Vlad something just came up, I'm going to have to call you back." She said into the phone.

" _It's quite alright my dear, I'm sure you're busy."_ Vlad accepted _. "I'll talk to you soon then."_

The phone clicked as the other side hung up and Maddie went over to the radar and checked the readout.

Five blips.

All in the same place too. Maddie felt a cold sweat run down her back. They had never dealt with five ghosts at a time.

She tapped one of the blips and a number popped up at the corner of the screen. Her eyes widened. 4.42 that was reasonably strong for a ghost. She tapped the next one and felt a bit of relief. A measly 1.34, perhaps it was one big ghost controlling a bunch of weaker ones.

Still… Better safe than sorry. She clicked the next blip and got a 1.40. Okay this was looking better. She pressed the next and started getting worried again. It was a 3.23, not as strong as the first but still tougher than the two weak ones combined. She pressed the final blip and felt something akin to dread flow through her.

5.56.

She picked up her Fenton phone from where it lay on the table nearby. She needed to tell Sam and Tucker to head over there and that she and Jack would meet them. She froze as realization hit her. Jack was at the store, and she doubted he remembered to bring his Fenton Phone with him. She had no way to get there other than running.

Still she better tell Sam and Tucker to head over and try and assess the situation. She and Jack would meet them as soon as he got home with the RV. Also after they packed some bigger guns.

* * *

 _Ember's concert, Danny's POV…_

Danny sat backstage absently stringing the guitar. Cujo stared up at him with his head tilted in curiosity. They were Ember's concert which was taking place in Amity Park's park. Whose idea was that, he wondered.

He gave the guitar one last strum before setting it down. He could hear Ember playing with her band out onstage. Not much he could do about that, he had all of one guitar lesson. So here he was sitting backstage with Cujo.

He hadn't really done much to disguise himself at this point. All he had done was put on sunglasses and a baseball cap that said security on it. He also put a name tag on that read, **Hello My Name is Phantom.** The name tag was just a joke really but it amused him.

He could hear the people watching the concert chanting Ember's name outside. What do you know, he thought, her plan is actually working so far.

He patted Cujo on the head, "Well boy, guess I was wrong about things going to go wrong."

That was when the door was kicked open.

Why, oh why did he say that.

"Hey you can't be back here." Danny said standing up and facing the door kickers.

He was met with two figures in hazmat suits. One wore a purple one with black boots and gloves as well as a hood and goggles. The other wore a similar outfit only orange. It could also be noted that the purple one was more feminine looking and had steel toed boots instead of regular ones.

"The jig is up." The orange one said causing the purple one to glare at him, "What? I've always wanted to say that." He explained

The purple one, you know what he was just going to call them by their colors. Purple turned her attention back to him and pulled out a shiny futuristic looking gun. "We know you're ghosts."

Danny's eyes widened behind his sunglasses. "What? Ghosts?! Don't be ridiculous nope no ghosts here." He waved his hands at them.

"Dude, that dog is green." Orange said pointing at Cujo who was staring at the newcomers with a mixture of wariness and confusion.

"Would you believe we dyed his fur?" Danny tried.

"Your name-tag also says your name is Phantom. Also you're glowing" Purple added in.

Danny face palmed, whoops. He should have worn the sweatshirt, and not put his name on a name-tag.

"Okay fine", He took off his sunglasses letting his glowing green eyes show. "I'm a ghost, boo, rah, run away." He made monster claws starting at 'I'm' and made a shooing gesture when he said 'run away.'

"No way. We're ghost hunters and we're not going to let you terrorize our town." Purple declared clicking the safety off for her weapon and Orange pulled out a ray gun of his own.

Danny raised a skeptical eyebrow before bursting out laughing. "Really you two are ghost hunters? And here I was actually worried about hunters showing up." He mock wiped a tear out of eye.

"Oh yeah? Well laugh at this!" Purple pulled the trigger of her gun and a blast hit Danny in the shoulder causing him to stumble back a step.

"Hey that stings!" He said rubbing his shoulder. "Now allow me to run away in fear of getting shot by a low powered laser gun." He joked.

Purple glared at Orange again, "I thought you said these work up on ghosts up to level four point five!" She condescended her partner.

"I did! They do!" The orange hunter pulled out a device and pointed it at Danny. "Woah…" He trailed off.

"What is it." His partner asked and took a look at the device's read out. They both looked at Danny in shock.

"5.56?! No way, you're scrawny!" Orange said in surprise.

"Yeah two things, one, I have no idea what that number means, and two, I'm not that scrawny!" He said the last part sounding very offended, which he was.

"Yeah you are." Orange said as Purple shook herself.

"Strong or not you're going down." She said and shot at him again this time aiming for his head.

Rather than stand still again, Danny dodged out of the way of the shots and shot a weak powered ecto-blast from his pointer finger at the gun knocking it out of her hands, "Sorry I'm going to have to confiscate that." He smirked and blew on the tip of his finger like it was a pistol.

She growled and pulled out a glowing stick as Orange pulled his ray gun out again and pointed it at Phantom.

Purple swung at Phantom's head but he ducked below it and jabbed her in the gut and spun out from under her. She bent over clutching her gut and dropping her stick, the wind knocked out of her. While she was hunched Phantom gave her a light shove causing her to collapse onto the ground.

He felt a sting on his back and felt his eyes glow brighter in anger at being attacked from behind. He glared at Orange out of the corner of his eye. The other hunter seemed to get the message and dropped his gun and put his hands up.

"I surrender!" He said.

"Really?" Purple asked pushing herself to her hands and knees.

"Hey, he's scary looking." Orange defended himself and Danny grinned at hearing that.

"I thought I was scrawny?" He asked sarcastically.

Danny looked at the two of them. "Now either I can escort you away from here or Cujo can." He gestured at his dog who had his tail wagging and gave a little bark.

"How could a tiny dog like that escort us out?" Orange asked confused at the idea.

Cujo suddenly growled and grew into his gigantic form with completely red eyes and slobber dripping out of the corners of his mouth as he bared his teeth.

"That's how." Danny said with pride in his voice.

"We'll take you." The two hunters said in unison. Hearing this Cujo shrunk down and hid his head behind his paws and gave a little whine.

Danny smiled mischievously and went invisible causing the two ghost hunters to look around in confusion. He snuck around behind them and grabbed them both from behind spreading his invisibility and turning the three of them intangible.

"Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times." He said in a joking tone and flew all three of them outside the stage and away from the concert and to the edge of the park.

He dropped them on the ground causing both of them to land on their butts. He also dropped his intangibility and invisibility

"Now next time what do you not do?" Danny asked cockiness lining his voice.

The two hunters on the ground looked at each other and shrugged not understanding.

Danny sighed, "Next time you don't mess with Phantom." He smirked at them one last time and went invisible again and flew back to the concert grinning to himself.

* * *

 _Sam POV…_

Sam stared after the ghost in mute shock. They had dealt with other sentient ghosts before but not like him. Not as strong as him either. Also something seemed almost familiar about him... She shook it off, she was probably imagining things.

"We just got owned." Tucker said pulling himself to his feet and brushing himself off.

Sam grumbled and pushed herself up to stand next to him. They had just got beat by a wisecracking scrawny ghost kid. She was supposed to protect the town, and he had taken her down with only a couple blows.

Her Fenton Phone started beeping in her ear and she pressed it.

"Hello?" She asked.

" _Sam, Jack and I are on our way what's the situation?"_ Maddie's voice sounded in her ear.

"Umm, the ghosts seem to be having a concert, Tucker and I went backstage and-" Maddie cut her off before she could continue.

" _WHAT? I told you to observe and not do anything, are you two okay?"_ The elder ghost hunter said sounding worried.

"We were going to get a closer look!" Sam protested. "But yeah we're fine, we did run into two ghosts though."

" _DId they attack you?"_ Maddie asked.

"Not exactly…" Sam trailed off.

"There was a human looking one and a dog, Sam tried to shoot the human but he just brushed it off. Also I scanned him and it said he was a level 5.56!" Tucker explained.

" _The 5.56!? Did he hurt you two?"_ Mrs. Fenton questioned.

"Mainly our pride." Tucker joked, "The guy looked scrawny and he knocked Sam over almost as soon as she attacked him."

" _But he didn't try to kill either of you?'_ Maddie asked sounding a bit confused.

"He didn't really seem evil like the other sentient ghosts, well unless sarcasm can be considered a form of evil." Sam explained.

" _We'll talk more when we get there- EYES ON THE ROAD JACK!"_ The sound cut off.

"They'll be fine." Sam said at Tucker's worried expression.

She looked down in thought and crossed her arms. This ghost hadn't really acted evil, like Technus, Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady, but the Fenton's said all ghosts were evil.

So what did that mean?

* * *

 **So I'm going to end it here for now, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!**

 **So we saw Vlad briefly, or at least heard from him. We'll see more of him later. Also I didn't include Jazz in this chapter, I'm still trying to figure out her role. But I think I might have her be the first to figure out Phantom is Fenton's ghost.**

 **Well either her or Wes.**

 **Oh this Phandom just love picking on Wes don't we?**

 **Also for those who may be wondering, Danny's not evil because he's helping Ember. He's just helping out his friend. In the next chapter we'll see a bit of his hero complex show up.**

 **Anyway it's review time!**

 **Charmeleon:** **I wouldn't say she's hysterically driven but she's a ghost hunter, all ghosts are evil. Yeah. Also yes Danny's a "good ghost".**

 **Kimera20:** **Thank you, and here is the next one that you could not wait for!**

 **Phantom J. Ryder:** **You're going to have to wait awhile for him to remember everything, he will start to remember more as he stays in Amity though.**

 **J of Darkness:** **I'm guessing you're not much of a Sam fan, and I see where you're coming from there but I try to remain neutral while writing characters.**

 **OptimisticEmotion** **: Here is more! I'm glad you like it.**

 **Karisay:** **Welcome I'm glad you like it. But as much as you love Ember x Skulker I am sorry to say I'm not that much of a fan of that pairing. I'm sorry if you don't like that. Also I already have a plan for Danny meeting Skulker.**

 **And that's it for this time!**

 **Tune in next time to hear Ember sing a silly song.**

 **If you get the reference GG it's more than 10 years old :D**

 **See ya!**

 **-FriTIk**

 **R &R**


	8. The Ghosts are in Town

**Bring out yer dead, bring out yer dead.**

 **They need to do things in this fanfiction. Like play roles of characters and fight and be amusing.**

 **Monty Python references aside how is everyone doing today?**

 **So this chapter things will continue to happen and we'll see Danny's hero complex in action.**

 **Isn't that fun?!**

 **Anyway last chapter this stuff happened:**

 **Danny went to the human world with Ember and Cujo!**

 **Maddie got a call from a fruitloop!**

 **Danny started learning how to play guitar!**

 **Sam and Tucker tried (and failed) to stop Ember's concert!**

 **And now for the continuation!**

* * *

When Danny got back to the concert it was just about over. This was unsurprising considering it had been going for awhile before he took those two hunters to the edge of the park and out of the way, not to mention the flight to the edge and back took up some time.

Ember was just finishing up her final song. Danny slipped backstage again and found Cujo sniffing at the stuff the hunters had left behind. Not much just two of their ray guns and that glowing stick Purple had swung at his head.

He picked up one of the blasters and inspected it. It was shiny and made of metal, but that would have been obvious even if he wasn't holding it. What he did notice upon closer inspection was a green flaming F on the side of the blaster.

"Probably for failed." He grinned to himself.

Well I might as well hold onto this stuff, he thought to himself. It wasn't like he was going to return it to the ghost hunters so they could try to use it on him again. Not that it was all that effective the first time.

While he was distracted by his thoughts the concert finished up and Ember came backstage.

"Not a bad turnout." He told her, having seen the crowd at the beginning of the concert and when he just got back from dropping of Orange and Purple.

"It's just the beginning." She smirked, her hair seemed… bigger? Or more fiery than usual. Probably a side effect of people chanting her name and helping her power grow.

"Dramatic much?" He asked jokingly and picked up his sunglasses from where they lay on the ground from when he took them off.

Ember's eyes widened at the sight of the ghost hunters' equipment on the ground. "What happened back here?"

"Two wannabe ghost hunters." Danny shrugged inspecting his shades making sure they weren't cracked, throwing them on the ground was probably not the best idea. "Nothing I couldn't handle, their guns barely even stung."

"Ghost hunters…" Ember trailed off in thought. "Maybe we should move, just in case they come back with bigger guns."

"Since when are you scared of a couple of humans?" He asked.

"Since I don't want my plans ruined before they truly begin." She explained.

"Fair enough." Danny accepted her response. "For the record though I think this would go better if you weren't trying to take over the world."

"Why's that?" Ember asked.

"Because trying something this big is just asking to fail." He reasoned. "Seriously this is our first time in the human world since both of us died, and you've been dead a lot longer than I have."

"Great now you've probably jinxed it." Ember groaned. "Come on let's get a move on before that jinx starts to become real."

Danny shrugged and grabbed a bag and the case for the guitar Ember lent him. He put the ghost hunting weapons in the bag, and slung both the bag and case over his shoulders, one per shoulder respectively.

He whistled for Cujo and turned to Ember. "When's the next concert?"

"Dunno yet, I'm going to be doing a recording tomorrow though." She told him.

"Well, I'm guessing I'll hear about it before hand. I'm going to check out the human world a bit." He told her.

"Have fun I guess." Ember shrugged nonchalantly, "Don't get the human cops angry at you, it'll make things harder in the long run."

"Hey! I got money." Danny waved a wad of cash he had collected for admittance to the concert. Not that he really needed it, he just would rather avoid stealing if he could help it.

With a mock salute he and Cujo took to the sky turning invisible to avoid notice.

As he flew over near where he dropped the hunters off he saw a big RV, like vehicle speeding down the road barely avoiding other drivers and doing bends and turns that should have been physically impossible.

Danny looked for a moment before it drove out of sight

"Jeez, you'd have to be insane to get in the car with that driver." He muttered.

* * *

 _Maddie POV…_

"We've got to be insane." She heard Tucker say in the backseat. Maddie had to admit she could somewhat agree with him.

"Jack honey, don't you think this is a bit-" She was cut off as her husband made another sharp turn, "Dangerous?" She finished.

"Nonsense!" Jack grinned. "I know exactly what I'm doing, and where I'm going." He added.

It was nice to see him smiling again, he had been a lot quieter since Danny's death. But ghost hunting always brought a gleam to his eye, even if it was a bit duller than it used to be.

"We'll get to those ghosts in no time!" He paused and looked at the signs on the sides of the road. "If I can just find the turnoff into the park." He said aggravatedly.

"We won't get to any ghosts-" Sam too was cut off but this time from going over a bump, "If we die before we get there!" She finished.

"FOUND IT!" Jack said and took a sharp turn into the park.

A few minutes later they were at an emptying concert.

"Damn it." Maddie heard Sam curse in the back, "I thought they would still be going."

The group got out of the RV and fought their way through the massive crowd. Trying to get to the stage.

As she slipped through the crowd she heard people talking about the concert.

"That Ember girls knows how to rock!"

"How did she get her hair to look like it was on fire like that?"

"Her music is so awesome!"

"Where's the bathroom around here?"

"I heard she's going to release an album soon!"

Maddie took mental notes of the important information. Ember, she seemed to be the kingpin but from what Sam and Tucker had said it sounded like the strongest ghost of the bunch was backstage for some reason. Maybe he was pulling the strings from behind the curtains?

She made it to the door to the backstage first and kicked it open to find…

An empty room.

She clenched her fists angrily, too late! The ghosts were gone.

Maddie entered the area and looked around. There wasn't much here, these ghosts had cleaned out fast and efficiently. She pulled out an ecto-energy scanner, also called the Fenton Ghost Scanner, and started looking around.

She heard Sam, Tucker and Jack come in behind as she scanned the area picking up high readings almost everywhere. There had definitely been multiple ghosts here. The scanner couldn't go three feet without going off. Unfortunately it was just residue. It seemed that no ghosts had remained behind.

"Where are they?" She heard Sam muttering as the girl looked around.

Maddie looked back at Sam as she became increasing frustrated.

"Where are what?" She asked her.

"Our weapons, the ghost we met back here disarmed us." She glared at Tucker, "Well he disarmed me anyway."

"Hey his eyes started glowing a lot stronger when I shot him, I didn't want an angry ghost who was that strong after me." Tucker defended himself.

"He took your weapons?" She asked, that was a bit worrying why would a ghost take them? It's not like he needed them from Sam and Tucker said.

"It looks like it." Tucker said taking one last look around. Sam crossed her arms in frustration.

"I swear this ghost is just messing with us." Sam complained.

Maddie felt her lips thin. That was an unsettling thought. This ghost was the strongest they had seen so far and he had a bunch of weaker ghosts with him. If he was just toying with them, how were they supposed to stop him from doing whatever he wanted?

* * *

 _Danny POV Amity Park Mall the next day, October 7, 2004…_

Danny really wanted to eat the cheeseburger sitting in front of him. He just wasn't sure if he could. Seriously, were ghosts able to eat human food? It looked so good. As soon as he had seen it he had gone through a memory flash about eating one. The memories of the taste were so good. So he bought himself one.

He stuffed his hands in his newly purchased sweatshirt and glared at the burger in front of him. Danny really wanted to eat it. But he wasn't sure if it was possible for ghosts to eat human food, or even taste it for that matter.

After leaving the concert he had found a clothing store and used his money to get a new sweatshirt and hat. He had received a few strange looks for his hair color and pale skin but he didn't think anyone noticed his ghostly glow. His sweatshirt was black with a logo for a band called Humpty Dumpty and his hat was a basic baseball cap, no team logo though.

Once he had put on his new clothes he had spent the night flying around town, he kept feeling weird like he should know this place. Maybe it was because it was a human city. The next day eventually rolled around and he had decided to spend the day at the mall. It was a big place full of stores of various sizes and genres. Around three o'clock he had discovered the food court.

Danny heard sniffing at his feet and looked down. He couldn't see anything but he felt something rub up against his leg. No doubt Cujo was down there. Danny had told Cujo to stay near him before they entered the mall. So far the dog had obeyed the command but Danny worried his dog would get bored and scamper off.

Danny saw a fry that had been left on the ground jump into the air and disappear. His eyes widened. So Cujo could eat normal food. No reason he couldn't. He picked up the cheese burger and took a bite.

Yep he could taste it.

As Danny chewed his sandwich he looked around the mall. Humans went about their lives, shopping, eating, dragging kids away from toy or candy displays…

It certainly seemed more hectic to be a living person. Not to mention they couldn't even fly. How did they get by without being able to take a flight whenever they needed to think or relax?! Well he had obviously lived like that for some time. Danny shrugged, he actually felt a bit bad for them.

He had just about finished his burger when the screaming started. He looked around in surprise at the sudden noise. What the heck?

"BEWARE" A voice sounded throughout the corridor as people ran away from its origin.

"Oh you've got be kidding me." Danny slammed his forehead onto the table in front of him. Why in the Zone was the Box Ghost here.

He watched the humans run from the annoying blue ghost and felt something inside him again. It was just like when Poindexter was being shoved around by that jock ghost. Why the heck was it happening.

Danny caught sight of the Box Ghost. He was surrounded by boxes that glowed as he occasionally sent them flying at the humans.

 **YoU sHoUlDn'T lEt HiM dO ThAt.**

Danny shook his head. What the heck was that.

 **ThOsE hUmAnS dOn'T dEsErVe To SuFfEr.**

Danny felt the same drive when Poindexter was thrown onto the ground. He felt his eyes burn brightly and saw his hands glow green with ecto-energy.

 **StOp HiM. sAvE tHeM.**

He looked down at where he knew Cujo was. "Cujo stay." He ordered then turned invisible. He took off his sweatshirt and sunglasses. If he was going to make an appearance it would be out of disguise. He left them on the table, anyone who looked would think that someone left them there when they ran.

Thankfully everyone seemed to busy running in fear to notice his disappearing act. He heard Cujo whine as he jumped into the air invisibly. He flew towards the Box Ghost as the blue ghost managed to trip a girl with a black long sleeved shirt and orange hair.

Danny shot a blast knocking the other ghost back and allowed himself to be visible.

"Really Boxy? Got tired of annoying the Ghost Zone and decided to bother people here instead?" He asked crossing his arms.

The other ghost picked himself up and looked at Danny. "Phantom?" Box Ghost said in surprise before regaining his previous demeanor.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? DID YOU THINK LEAVING THE ZONE WOULD SAVE YOU FROM THE BOX GHOST?!" He shouted waving his arms trying to make himself look threatening.

It failed. Miserably.

"Save me from dying again from annoyance caused by you? I was hoping." Danny shrugged. "Guess I'll just have to send you home while I'm here."

"YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME THE BOX GHO-" The chubby blue ghost was cut off as Danny placed an upper cut on his jaw sending him soaring towards the second floor. Breaking through the edge of the ledge.

"Seriously dude, you're not scary, get over it." Danny told him as he flew up after him.

"I AM TOO SCARY." Box Ghost whined at him, "THE HUMANS FEAR ME!"

"That's because they're new to the whole ghost thing." Danny explained, "Once they realize just how non-scary you are they'll be ignoring you just like we do."

The Box Ghost looked depressed for a second before his expression turned angry, "I WILL SHOW YOU JUST HOW NON-NON-SCARY, I AM!" He yelled and boxes flew out of nearby stores and surrounded him as his red eyes glowed brighter.

With a wave of his hands the boxes flew at Danny who looked very bored with the situation. Right before the boxes hit him he went intangible allowing them to fly right through him.

Box Ghost looked dumbfounded before getting very frustrated and growling angrily.

"Okay I'm done with this." Danny commented before the weaker ghost could embarrass himself any further with a temper tantrum. He flew forward and slammed his fist into Box Ghost's stomach causing him to hunch over at the unexpected pressure.

Danny then spun and kick him in the head knocking him into the story behind him. Various crashing noises were heard as the ghost crashed through things too stunned to go intangible.

Danny flew into the store after him. The C-Class ghost lay in a pile of debris looking a bit stunned.

"Okay, here's the deal Boxy, you can either go back to the Ghost Zone on your own, or I can beat you the entire way back to the portal. Your choice." Danny gave the ghost his options.

The Box Ghost looked at him for a second. Then suddenly raised his arms. "FEEL GRATEFUL PHANTOM, THAT I HAVE DECIDED TO BE MERCIFUL AND RETURN TO THE GHOST ZONE THUS LEAVING YOU WITH YOUR DIGNITY!"

"Yeah whatever, now hurry along before I change my mind and pound you anyways." Danny made a shooing gesture.

"BEWARE!" The Box Ghost shouted out one final time before flying away.

Danny sighed as the drive left him and his hands stopped glowing. He'd have to ask Clockwork what that was about when he got back to the Zone.

He flew out of the store and back to the first floor, landing on the ground. He started walking towards the food court and his table when noticed the girl the box ghost had tripped was still there but standing now and she was staring at him.

Danny blinked in surprise at her non scared demeanor. "Aren't you going to run?" He asked her.

"You saved me." She stated. He could see curiosity burning in her eyes along with a fierce intelligence. "You fought another ghost why?"

"That's the Box Ghost, trust me, no one in the Zone really likes him." Danny said, not wanting to talk about the weird urges that made him do it.

"So why was he here?" The girl asked.

"Probably figured out he wasn't getting anywhere in being feared by the Ghost Zone so he decided to come here to scare humans." Danny smirked, "Honestly it was a bit funny watching all of you run from the least scary ghost in the Zone."

"So he's here because he wants to be scary, interesting." The girl looked thoughtful. Danny stared at her for a moment.

"You're weird you know that." He told her.

"How so?" She asked sounding confused.

"Well you're talking to me for one, and you didn't bother running while I was fighting Boxy, honestly I would have thought humans would be terrified of that." Danny explained.

"Oh I was, in fact I think I'm in shock and that everything is going to sink in once a few more minutes go by and I'm going to faint." She explained.

"Oh…" Danny trailed off before he heard a bunch of loud breaking and chewing noises coming from the food court, right where he had left…

Uh-oh.

"What's that noise?" The orange haired girl asked looking in the direction of the sounds.

"Umm, I should probably go take care of that." Danny said having the decency to look slightly ashamed.

"Why what is it.?" The girl asked him.

"You ask a lot of questions." Danny said trying to change the subject only to get a glare in response. Why was this girl so stubborn?

"Fine, it's my dog…" Danny admitted.

"How big is your dog?" She asked looking a bit shell shocked that she could hear a dog this far away.

"Depends." Danny said cryptically floating back into the air.

"On what?" She pestered.

"On how hungry he is." Danny smirked and winked.

"Funny." The girl grumbled.

"I know I am." He gave a mock bow, "What's your name anyway?" He asked before he took off to stop whatever Cujo was doing.

"Jazz Fenton." The newly identified Jazz said.

The name made him shudder for some reason Danny couldn't explain, he could think about that later.

"Danny Phantom." He nodded, "See ya!"

He flew off towards the food court going invisible as he flew leaving Jazz staring after him thoughtfully.

Upon entering the food court he smacked himself in face. "Damnit Cujo…" He moaned.

The seating area was a mess. It looked like the only table still standing was his, sweatshirt and shades still sitting on top of it. The rest of the tables were in various states of disarray either broken or tipped over. Cujo must have eaten the food off their surfaces. Speaking of Cujo he found said dog in giant form munching out the burger place. Must've gained a taste for burgers and fries Danny grinned at the thought.

"Cujo heel!" He called out to the dog who raised his head. When he turned Danny saw his mouth had fries sticking out as he chewed. Burger meat and cheese coated his muzzle. Danny sighed, "Come here boy." Cujo was more than happy too and seemed to forget about his meal quickly ran over and tackled Danny.

"Agh! Cujo! Down!" Danny said as the dog licked him covering Danny in ghost dog slobber. Cujo got the message and shrunk back down to normal size still on Danny's chest. He barked at his master and sat there wagging his tail with his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

Danny smiled gratefully and patted him on the head, before sighing and looking around. Oh this was not good. He surveyed the damage. Hopefully Ember wouldn't find out about this. But with his luck she probably would and he'd have to explain what happened.

Oh well, he would worry about that later.

He got up and put his sweatshirt and sunglasses back on. Time to leave before he got asked what happened and people started wondering why he looked weird.

* * *

 _Jazz POV…_

Jazz stared after the ghost. She felt sadness welling back up inside her at the name Danny.

She knew it was probably just coincidence but she couldn't help but feel sadness at the thought of her dead little brother.

She sighed, she wasn't on the best terms with her parents right now. It had been their stupid obsession with ghosts that had caused Danny to die. Nothing could be done about it now, at least they had tried to stop after the accident but then the ghosts started showing up and they had no choice.

Personally, Jazz felt they were burying themselves in work trying to avoid thinking about Danny. She found herself doing the same earlier on, denial. If she didn't think about Danny then she wouldn't have to admit he was dead. But she realised that wasn't going to get her anywhere so she had been trying to just live to move on.

Kind of hard when the dead kept showing up.

She sighed and turned away and started heading towards the exit. She didn't want to be here when her parents showed up. Knowing them they would panic about her and maybe lock her in the house so no "evil putrid ectoplasmic monster" could hurt her.

They had a ghost portal in the basement, that kind of killed the point of hiding at home.

Suddenly her vision was filled with spots, oh yeah, now everything was catching up to her. Guess she would be here when her parents arrived.

Jazz felt her eyes roll up as she began to fall backwards. Hopefully she wouldn't hit her head too hard…

* * *

 _Maddie POV ten minutes later…_

Maddie sighed to herself. The Box Ghost. Again. That ghost just didn't know when to quit. He was by far the weakest of the sentient ghosts they had fought. But also the most determined. They hadn't even bothered worrying Sam and Tucker with a call.

They had got the call about two hours after they got home. They had spent the night trying to find the fives ghosts from the night before but no such luck. The radar didn't work that well on the move for some reason. She needed to work that bug out. But when she checked it she felt somewhat worried. The ghost that had formerly been at 4.42 had jumped up to 4.51. How did the ghost gain such a power boost in one night? It might not seem that big but it was a lot larger than any power fluctuation should have been.

In fact most power fluctuation stayed in the thousandth range of the scale. But this ghost had jumped nine hundredths in a night. That shouldn't have been possible. Unless somehow it was gaining more power.

She and Jack entered the evacuated mall weapons up. Jack had a Fenton Bazooka while she held a one handed blaster and a close range scanner. It wasn't picking up much but they continued onward wearily. Admittedly it was supposed to be just the Box Ghost but better safe than sorry.

They wandered through the abnormally silent mall. Boxes were scattered across the floor. Some displays were knocked over and discarded bags and foodstuffs lay across the ground with the boxes. Some of the display windows had holes in the glass from where a particularly heavy or solid box had crashed through it.

When the scanner went off she and Jack quickly went on guard. But they didn't see anything. She looked at the scanner and saw that there were high amounts of residue in the area. She continued searching before she heard a dripping sound. She looked down and saw a small green puddle forming.

Ectoplasm? Maddie thought in confusion and looked up. There was a chunk missing on the glass fenced edge of the second floor.

Another drop fell from a sharp edge of glass. She nudged Jack and pointed up at it. His face mirrored the surprise she felt. Exactly what had happened here?

They continued on wearily when she saw someone collapsed on the ground. Maddie felt worry overtake her. Had the Box Ghost actually managed to hurt someone? Then the worry multiplied massively until it was outright dread when she recognized just who it was laying there.

Jazz!

The ghost hunter in her was overwhelmed with motherly instinct. A shout of fear escaped her her. She couldn't lose another child! Maddie ran over throwing her weapons on the ground and pulling off her glove to take a pulse.

She sighed in relief as she felt it steadily beat under her fingers. She was still alive, just unconscious. She heard Jack run up next to her and drop his Bazooka.

"She's okay." Maddie told him, "Just unconscious her heartbeat is steady."

She saw his shoulders slump in relief. Jazz let out a moan and began to stir. She opened her eyes and her pupils dilated from the light. She blinked a few times before they focused on Maddie and Jack.

"Mom? Dad?" She asked confused.

"Where's the ghost that did this to you!" Jack demanded. "I'll tear him apart molecule by molecule!" He promised.

"What?" Jazz asked confused then registered the words. "Oh, no it wasn't a ghost, just all the emotional stress of what happened caught up to me."

Maddie blinked. "What exactly happened?"

"Well the Crate Creep showed up and started terrorizing people." Jazz explained propping herself up on her elbows. "Everyone was running away and I fell to the back of the crowd and tripped. He floated over me and well that's when things get confusing."

Maddie blinked at her daughter, "Confusing how?"

"He was attacked." Jazz said causing both Maddie and her husband to perk up in surprise. Sam or Tucker had been here? Maybe both. "But not by Sam or Tuck." Jazz added answering the unspoken question. "It was another ghost."

"Another ghost." Maddie asked quietly, more to herself than to Jazz but her daughter nodded anyway.

"Yeah he was kind of young looking, he had white hair and green eyes, also he was pretty pale. He had a black t-shirt with a flaming DP in the middle." Jazz continued. "He took the Box Ghost down in about thirty seconds flat, right in front of me for part of it. I managed to talk to him when he was done."

Maddie had been quiet thinking about how the strongest ghost they had encountered had been right here in the mall. Sam and Tucker had described him exactly as Jazz had. But when Jazz said she actually _talked_ to the ghost she felt her worry kick back in.

"Jazz Fenton!" She exclaimed, "Do you have any idea how dangerous approaching a ghost was! Especially _that_ ghost."

"I didn't exactly get near him I just started asking him ques- Wait. What do you mean by _that_ Ghost?" Jazz cut off her defense confused.

Maddie's mind was working on overdrive but she automatically explained it to her daughter. "Sam and Tucker ran into that ghost last night." She explained, "He has the highest level reading out of all the ghosts we've encountered so far. He and four weaker ghosts showed up last night. About half our weapons aren't even strong enough to hurt him"

"But half our weapons are strong enough to blast that putrid protoplasm to smithereens!" Jack said proudly patting the Fenton Bazooka where it lay next to him.

"But he didn't even hurt me." Jazz said defensively, "He saved me from the Crate Creep remember!?"

Maddie didn't answer too busy thinking about why this ghost would attack another. Putting two and two together sometimes came to a very unwanted and scary four. This was one of those times.

This ghost, Phantom as Sam said he called himself, was probably far from the strongest ghost in the Zone there but he was powerful enough to control four other ghosts, two having a reasonable amount of power themselves. Even if he wasn't the strongest in the Zone he was the strongest here on Earth as far as she knew. If he was here in the human world battling other ghosts that meant a very unpleasant thing.

This was a ghost turf war and the setting was Amity Park.

* * *

 **Oh Maddie, you poor, poor misinformed ghost hunter.**

 **I honestly love it when the ghost hunters make assumptions based on what they know about ghosts and they're completely wrong. It just cracks me up.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed that chapter as well as how I portrayed a ghost's obsession driving them, even if they normally wouldn't do that. Though knowing Danny he very well might have without weird voices in his head.**

 **So we got to see Jazz! She and Danny will have more talks in the future until eventually she starts to put the pieces together.**

 **Also yes this chapter did come out fast, I'm just really into writing this story right now!**

 **Anyways, reviews time!**

 **Phantom J. Ryder:** **Yeah basically his hero complex is his obsession, and there was Jazz like I said they'll talk more in the future and you were right memories will be encouraged, also about Ember, her plans are going to go south real fast but I think I might keep her and Danny friends. He's kinda like her conscious trying to make her good. Also you are correct it was Veggie Tales! Congrats! You're old like me :D!**

 **Kimera20:** **Glad you liked the chapter, still working on how Vlad and Danny are going to meet, I've got an idea but it's a WiP**

 **BaconLover1800:** **Be patient friend, all will be revealed in time!**

 **Anthonyabc268:** **Your love is much appreciated :)**

 **Yuwof:** **Thanks, I hope you continue to enjoy.**

 **J of Darkness:** **She is a bit hypocritical isn't she? And I get why you don't support the ship and I do plan to keep up the good work! Also your review sort of contradicts itself a bit?**

 **This'll be it for now folks!**

 **Also I know I didn't actually have Ember sing, sorry.**

 **Y'all come back now!**

 **-FriTik**

 **R &R**


	9. Dying of the Flames

**So, umm…**

 **I don't actually have a witty entrance or some random reference for this chapter. Anyone have any ideas?**

 ***Crickets chirping***

 **Well that was incredibly helpful.**

 **Anyway shall we go over the events of last chapter?!**

 **-The ghosts left before the ghost hunters could get there!**

 **-Danny went to the mall and had some weird ass voices in his head!**

 **-Jazz met Phantom!**

 **-Maddie is convinced Phantom is in Amity Park to take over it!**

 **I like messing with ghost hunters. It's just so much fun!**

 **Anyway this arc is coming to an end this chapter so we're going to find out how Ember's bid for world domination goes.**

 **Could go either way really.**

 **So if you recall last chapter we saw a bit of how a ghost's obsession works. Or at least how I portray it in my stories. I might do other Danny Phantom fics in the future so it's nice to have that figured out. But that was the inside, we're going to see it a bit from the outside this chapter, and not just from Danny…**

 **Welp, that's all I got to say!**

 **ON WITH THE STORY!**

* * *

 _Danny POV October 8, 2004..._

"So you beat up Boxy?" Ember asked sounding bored lounging in one of the armchairs that came with the room.

They sat in a room at some random motel. Ember's music was all over the radio now. Apparently she was becoming the next 'thing' in pop music.

Danny blinked in surprise. "That's your response? I thought you would be well ticked that I let myself be seen."

"Eh, it was to beat up him, so I don't mind to much." Mutual dislike of the Box Ghost was shared by most ghosts in their area of the Ghost Zone. In fact Danny couldn't think of a single ghost he knew that didn't have an issue with Box Ghost.

"So you're going to take a truck to the high school and have a concert there?" Danny brought up what Ember had told him before he explained what happened at the mall. Where she had managed to get a full size tractor trailer, he couldn't hazard a guess.

"Yeah, bunch of teenagers who already love my music. The adults will absolutely hate it." Ember grinned viciously. Her dislike of adults and authority figures was strong and showed now that she was on her way to winning.

A thought occurred to Danny. "Hey your music is kind of like enchanted so teens can't help but to love it right?" He asked her verifying before continuing the thought when she nodded at him.

"Well Orange and Purple, those ghost hunters I met the other day, they looked to be around our age, or well physical age." Danny added. Ember had been dead for around fifteen years or so. "They didn't seem to be affected by your music at all."

Ember's eyes widened at that. "But that's not right…" She looked thoughtful, "Maybe some weird Ghost Hunting equipment is making it so my music doesn't affect them?" She suggested.

"And there we go." Danny pointed out, "They already know we're ghosts, what if they manage to convince people to wear whatever it is that keeps them shielded? Then what's going to happen? Maybe you should just try and do this normally, and away from this town." Danny gestured in the air.

Ember crossed her arms and looked away, "You wouldn't get it." She grumbled.

Danny sighed. "I'm your friend Ember, but I've been saying it since the start this won't end well. It's not too late to change the plan." he counseled her.

"I need to do this!" Ember shouted, her eyes seemed to blaze brighter, "I need to have the world chanting my name! I need them to know who I am! I NEED THIS!"

Danny stared in surprise at how aggressive she got over it. "I'm not stopping you." He held his hands up defensively, "I'm just voicing my opinion. You can go along with this if you really need to. It's just the hunters aren't going to sit back and let it happen."

Ember calmed down, "I know that they're not going to just let us do this. But we would need some sort of distraction…"

Danny eyed her warily. What the heck was that little episode. He hadn't seen her act like that before. He then recalled what had happened at the mall. He hadn't told anyone about the urging he felt to act. What if he wasn't the only ghost that felt that? But what if it urged different ghosts to do different things?

"Hey," Ember called him out of his thoughts, "Do you think you could let Cujo go out and play for a little bit?" She asked him.

Danny's eyes widened, "Depends on where you want me to let him play?"

"Somewhere that he'll get a lot of attention from lot's of people." Ember smirked at him.

Danny rubbed his chin and looked down in thought. "Well I suppose I could take him to the park to play, I mean the hunters are already suspicious of ghost activity there though so I would have to be careful. They might show up and start trying to get us" He returned her smirk.

"That's the way babypop." Ember gave a toothy grin.

* * *

 _Maddie's POV two hours later…_

Maddie was at the wheel of the RV as she and Jack returned to the park. They had picked up on the radar, which continued to be faulty she thought grimly, that 'Phantom' and the 3.23 Were both at the park. She didn't know where the other three were but the one that had started at 4.42 had now reached 4.73 the last time they caught sight of its blip. The radar hadn't picked it up within its two mile radius for the past twelve hours though. But the kingpin had returned to the park.

Her husband had wanted to drive again but after the last time she wanted to do it herself. This meant following a number of traffic laws, but she was willing to run a few stop signs and stop lights in order to get to the park quickly.

They hadn't told Tucker and Sam about this, they both had school. Anyway she wasn't sure she wanted either of them anywhere near this ghost. Not to mention he had another one with him.

They came to a stop near where the concert had been a couple days earlier. Jack grinned and went in back to get the Fenton Bazooka. Maddie unbuckled her seatbelt, reached for a hatch behind her and pulled out a much smaller range radar. This one was only two hundred feet in radius and didn't display ecto energy levels. She turned it on and immediately it started beeping.

Maddie's eyes widened as she saw a blip heading for the RV. It was moving _very_ fast and heading directly at them with no signs of changing course or stopping. She dropped the radar and re-buckled her seatbelt. And called back to her husband.

"JACK HOLD ONTO SOMETHING!" She braced herself for the oncoming impact by gipping the armrests of her seat.

The impact flipped the RV causing it to roll with a sound of tearing metal. When it came to a stop on its left side, Maddie slumped in her seat. She winced as she pushed herself up from the door she was leaning on. She didn't think anything was broken, but everything was still sore.

"Jack?" She asked tentatively worried for her husband.

A groan answered her and she sighed in relief. She unbuckled the seatbelt which had stayed attached miraculously. Maddie stood on the side of the RV which was now on the ground. She heard a growling outside.

She grabbed her Ecto-Blaster and pulled herself up the seats to the right door which was above her head, forcing it open she climbed on top of the flipped vehicle and caught her breath seeing what did this.

It was a dog probably about three fourths the size of the RV. It was obviously a ghost from the glowing green fur and blood red glowing eyes. She pointed her blaster at it just in time for the ghost dog to notice her. It growled loudly at her and she took a shot at it with the blaster.

The blast hit the shoulder and caused the dog to whine in pain as it pitched forward with a smoking spot where it had hit. She smirked, this dog as just all bark no bite. Well maybe a bit of bite considering it totaled the RV. The victory was cut short when the dog pushed itself up and whacked its head on the RV hard enough to tip the vehicle rightside up.

Maddie went flying off when the family car lurched under her. She lost her grip on the blaster and hit the ground hard. The ground below her shook briefly as the RV landed right side up. She hoped Jack was okay in there. But she had other problems as she had lost her Ecto-Blaster.

Before she could look for it a massive furry green form appeared in front of her. Slobber dripped from its mouth as the ghostly hound bared its teeth at her growling loudly.

"Cujo heel!" An echoey voice called out.

Maddie's eyes widened in shock as the massive dog shrunk down to the size of a puppy in seconds. It gave a much smaller growl before scampering backwards towards the source of the voice. A scrawny looking kid with very pale skin, white hair, glowing green eyes and a black t-shirt with a flaming D with a smaller P on the inside stood a few meters ahead of her.

Phantom.

Maddie couldn't say she was impressed with his appearance. But appearances weren't everything, especially when it came to ghosts. Phantom may very well be able to change the way he looked choosing this to lower his opponents guard. Or he could simply have died young and gained power and influence for however long he had been dead.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "So… sorry about Cujo, he can get a bit excited when meeting new people." He offered her a goofy grin.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise, this was the most powerful ghost she had ever seen and this was how it started a conversation.

"What?' Phantom stared down at her. "You look surprised, I thought you were supposed to be a ghost hunter." He looked thoughtful, "Orange did say I was scary looking, am I that scary?" He directed back at her.

Maddie forced down her surprise and went full Ghost Hunter, "I know what you're planning _ghost_." She said 'ghost' as nastily as she could, "And we won't let it happen."

"What I'm planning?" He asked in surprise, "I'm curious could you tell me what my plan is?" Phantom asked floating into the air and laying on his stomach and fist on his chin and legs kicking in the air behind him absently. "I'm not sure I'm clear on all the details."

"Don't play stupid with me, I know you plan to force all the other ghosts out of town except for your little posse, then you'll be free to do whatever you want with the town and its people." She growled out angry at how this ghost acted. At least Technus and the Box Ghost came right out with what they were going to do. This one delighted in annoying people.

Phantom stared at her silently for a moment before bursting into hysterics. "Oh, wow jeez." He now floated upright clutching his stomach. "You actually think I want to take over the town?" He asked her, "Why in the Zone would I want to do that!?"

"Because all you ghosts are emotionless evil monsters that do whatever they need to get what they want." She said a bit ruffled by his response to her theory. "We already have some proof just look what you did to the Box Ghost. You didn't want him in the way of your plans."

"Okay first off, even if what you think about ghosts is true, why would I want to take over this town? It's full of ghost hunters like yourself." he indicated her with his hand, "Second, the Box Ghost bothers my entire area of the Zone, literally any of us would have loved to take a swing at him, finally why do you seem to think I'm in charge?" He sounded genuinely curious.

Maddie's thoughts jumbled a bit, most of what he said was probably just to throw her off but the last bit hit her. What if Phantom didn't know he was the strongest of the bunch? Should she let him know that he was stronger. It might make him try to take control and cause the group to start fighting itself.

"You're the strongest of your group." She explained, "We assumed you would be in charge of the weaker ghosts." Hopefully that would get him to start thinking he was better than the others. He seemed to be in control of the dog. If he and the dog and the other three fought each other it would leave the ghosts severely weakened.

"I'm the strongest? Really?" Phantom sounded shocked. Good the plan was working so far.

"Yes, which makes me wonder why you would allow a ghost weaker than you to control you." Maddie said trying to push the idea. Ghosts were one-dimensional thinkers. He wouldn't allow himself to be controlled by an entity weaker than himself.

"Well actually I'm just here cause Ember asked for my help." Phantom shrugged, "It is strange I'm stronger than her though. But with how her powers work that might not last long." He said thoughtfully.

Maddie narrowed her eyes, okay that plan didn't work but why? Phantom should be unable to get over the fact that he was being controlled by one weaker than himself, and what did he mean it might not last long. "What are you talking about ghost, what do mean 'it might not last long'." She asked him. She pushed herself up to her feet finally and glared at the Ectoplasmic scum in front of her.

"Well that's because Ember get stronger the more people chant her name, and I really shouldn't have said that." He smacked himself in the face, "Stupid."

Maddie eyes widened at the explanation. That was why the one ghosts power level kept rising. That must be Ember. She was gaining power every single day thanks to the humans. "Okay then, what's her plan then?" Maddie asked hopeful the ghost would let something else slip.

"Yeah no, I'm not going to say anything else." Phantom crossed his arms. "I've already said way too mu- GAH" He was cut off mid sentence by a large green blast which sent him hurtling into a nearby tree.

"GET AWAY FROM MY WIFE YOU PUTRID PIECE OF PROTOPLASM!" A heroic sounding, and familiar voice shouted out.

Jack stood outside the RV a Fenton Bazooka smoking on his shoulder. Apart from a swollen eye and how he favored his left leg he didn't look to injured. She couldn't help but smile at the determination in his eyes.

Unfortunately the moment didn't last as the ghost dog, Cujo, leapt to his master's defense and having been initially ignored took the opportunity to leap on top of Jack bowling him over and causing him to drop his weapon. "Jack!" Maddie called out in worry.

"I'm okay!" Her husband shouted, "Get off me you dumb dog." Cujo proceeded to growl loudly, "I meant good dog! Heh heh. Please don't eat my face." Jack changed his response.

Phantom caught her attention as he groaned as he pushed himself up from the broken tree. "Okay oww, that one actually hurt. A lot more than Orange and Purples' weapons actually, speaking of which where are those two? I figured they would want a second shot at me." Phantom questioned.

Maddie opened her mouth to deny him his answer but Jack beat her to the punch. "They're at school! Education is important too! Not quite as much as ghost hunting but…" He trailed off, Maddie had convinced him to let Sam and Tucker stay at school if there was a ghost attack during the day.

Maddie mentally kicked herself for allowing her husband to answer first. Didn't he realize Phantom might use that information to hurt the kids?

"Wait they're at the school?" Phantom said eyes widening in what could be worry. "Oh no…" He trailed off in thought before calling to his dog, "CUJO! COME!" He leapt into the air and sent a blast at the rear treads of the RV before soaring off with the green dog in hot pursuit.

"Jack! We need to get to the high school the kids are in danger!" Maddie shouted acting immediately. She didn't know why Phantom flew off like that but it couldn't be a good thing.

"I"m coming! But the treads are shot. And the rest of RV is damaged." His tone dropped.

Maddie ground her teeth angrily. They would have to quickly repair the treads before they could get anywhere. Hopefully Sam and Tucker could handle themselves.

* * *

 _Sam's POV Casper High…_

"Is that all you can do dipsticks?" Ember taunted and strummed her guitar again sending a glowing fist at Sam and Tucker.

The two of them rolled out of the way and took cover behind a conveniently placed boulder.

Their personal ghost radars had gone off ten minutes earlier so they had been able to get their suits on and outside quickly and before Ember had arrived. They had started taking their heavier weapons to school since Phantom showed up. Good thing too because Ember was now too strong for their normal weapons.

Unfortunately Ember wasn't one to just sit there and take whatever she and Tuck threw at her. Her two band mates were down for the count however. She had managed to blast the two of them easily with her Ecto-Pistol. But Ember was a different story entirely.

She and Tucker were now both armed with Fenton Bazookas and trying desperately to take down Ember. But the pop star kept them at bay with her super powered guitar.

Sam looked at Tucker, "You go around and attack from behind I'll keep her distracted." She ordered. With that she jumped on top of the boulder and took another shot at the rockstar ghost.

"Honestly, I'm not impressed, sure those guns are big but as long as I dodge them I have nothing to worry about." Ember rationalized as she casually flew out of the way of the blast.

"You'll have plenty to worry about when I'm done with you ghost." Sam called out and continued firing seeing Tucker sneaking around out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh I'm so scared. A little girl playing dress up is threatening me!" Ember smirked at her as the ghost continued to dodge her weapon's blasts.

Sam grit her teeth and continued firing.

Ember's smirk disappeared and was replaced with a look of pain and a scream as Tucker's blast hit her from behind and sent her crashing to the ground.

Take that bitch, Sam thought smugly.

Sam and Tucker moved in and both aimed their weapons at the ghost ready to blast her to pieces. They lined up the shot.

* * *

 _Danny POV…_

Danny flew in the direction of the school not even questioning how he knew the way.

He arrived to see Orange and Purple aiming their weapons at Ember, these looked just like the one the fat hunter had used on him before.

 **StOp ThEm!**

Danny felt the drive coming in again.

 **No OnE hUrTs YoUr FrIeNdS.**

This time the drive felt different, colder would be a good word to describe it. His hands glowed blue instead of green and he felt the chill blaze in his eyes. He sent a blast of blue energy right in between Ember and the hunters.

Just in time it seemed.

A giant crystal of ice formed right where the blast hit causing the hunter to fall backwards. They looked to the source of the shot to see Danny floating there. He barely noticed Ember looked too he was so focused on the two hunters.

He landed on the ground. "Ember go back to the Zone, now." He told her.

She opened her mouth to argue then closed it finally seeming to accept that the world take over wasn't going to happen anytime soon. She turned and flew towards where two other glowing forms were, but these two were collapsed on the ground, more than likely he band mates.

Danny remained glaring at the two hunters. Orange pulled out his scanner and pointed it at him. He payed it no mind.

"How the hell!?" The ghost hunter exclaimed. "How did you do this!? You were at 5.54 how are you at 7.30 now!?" He questioned erratically with fear in his voice.

"I still don't know what that means and right now I couldn't. Care. Less." Danny punctuated the words. "You were about to end my friend!" He shouted in anger.

Ending. That was the best word for it so it was what ghosts called it. It was essentially what happened to ghosts instead of dying. The most common form of ending was fading, which happened when a ghost loses their obsession but there were other ways too. For example; being blasted point blank by two powerful ghost hunter weapons.

"Ghosts can't have friends." Purple said cocking her bazooka again and aiming carefully at Danny. "You're emotionless entities formed from post human consciousness.' She explained like it was something out of a textbook.

"I'm beginning to question just how much you all know about ghosts." Danny muttered his hands glowing brighter, "But I have had enough of all of you!" He roared and blaster the hunters.

They barely jumped out of the way in time as another ice wedge appeared where they had been standing. The ground around Danny's feet began to freeze. He could feel the power beginning to start coming out without him trying to bring it out.

He ignored this and flew at Orange just as he began recovering he punched him in the face causing one of the goggle lenses to crack. The young hunter fell to the ground from the force of the punch. Ice crystals hung from the side of his face where Danny's fist had met.

Danny payed him no mind and turned and blasted at Purple just as she raised her bazooka. A crystal formed jutting upward and smashing her face breaking her goggles and knocking the remains off her face.

Danny felt cold, so cold. Colder than he had ever felt before. He noted an icicle hanging from the tip of his white hair but he ignored it. He was going to finish this now.

He stalked towards Purple as she sat up and the hood of her hazmat suit fell off giving him a full view of her face.

Danny froze as he took in her face and unbidden memories began to surge to the surface.

"Sam?" He said tentatively, not to her it was more to himself as he needed to verify what he was seeing and remembering.

He felt his drive leave him but he was still so cold. The ground around his feet continued to freeze. He clutched his head trying to force back the rush of memories he could feel coming. He closed his eyes.

Danny took to the air and flew fast now opening his eyes to see where he was going. Away from the hunters, trying to outrun the cold that was on the inside and showed no signs of warming up, away from the life he didn't want to remember. He flew to the house where the portal was and caught sight of the giant neon sign labeling it.

Fenton Works.

Now that the memories were already coming he couldn't force them back down. They were about to overtake his consciousness. He just had to get to the Zone then he could black out.

He went intangible and flew through the door and down towards the lab. He ignored the ice that formed whenever he neared solid objects. He felt so cold…

Danny made it downstairs and saw the portal in the wall of the lab. A lab that was now more familiar if messier. His parents lab…

NO! No, ignore them! He needed to get to the Zone!

Danny flew headfirst into the portal sighing as he saw the familiar green of the Ghost Zone. He felt safer here. More at ease.

But the cold, his memories. MAkE IT STOP.

Danny's vision began to fade, losing his grip on reality as he spiraled into the Zone.

* * *

 _Clockworks POV…_

The Time Master sighed as he looked through the viewing screen at the young ghost. The Time ghost understood why the poor child didn't want to remember his past. Most ghosts didn't once they understood this was their existance now. There was no going back to the way things were before no matter how much they remembered.

But Daniel needed to remember. He had to be a hero in this timeline. It was unfortunate but the duty had to fall to someone. There were others who had the potential of being the hero at one point or another. His sister Jasmine could have ended up being the one to step into that portal and become a halfa. There was even a timeline where Miss Valerie Gray could have become a halfa known as Valerie Geist.

There were even some obscure timelines that were very confusing and strange. Their logic was faulty and normally another halfa would appear who was as strong or stronger than Daniel and cause him to act strangely. Those timelines did not usually end well.

Yet almost always it was Daniel who became the halfa and the hero. In this timeline he may not be a halfa but he still needed to be a hero if any of them, human and ghost had a chance against what was to come.

The viewscreen changed to show a vampiric looking ghost clutching an ancient looking book and cackling madly. The event had not come yet, and that moment would be the turning point for this timeline.

"I am sorry young phantom that this duty falls to you. Your trials will be long and hard." Clockwork said regretfully. "But you are the one who could save us all."

* * *

 **Cryptic ending, am I right?**

 **For those who found the ending confusing, Danny's memories are starting to come back. They have been bubbling under there ever since he set foot in Amity but he's been trying to push them down. Unfortunately these memories bursting forth are coinciding with his ice powers taking form.**

 **You can see how this might cause problems for a young ghost?**

 **Hopefully next chapter will be up shortly but in the meantime reviews!**

 **BaconLover1800:** **I already PMed you the answers but for everyone else, no Dan/ Dark Danny will not be in this fic and yes Pariah Dark will be in this fic.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder** **: Maddie still thinks he's evil especially after beating up Tucker and Sam, Jazz will talk to him more in the future.**

 **Kimera20:** **I actually don't know what pairings I'm going to do yet. So anyone leave suggestions for pairings in the reviews and I will take them into consideration!**

 **GIrlFish** **: She'll find out sooner or later ;).**

 **Kittylover05: ****Wow indeed.**

 **J of Darkness : ****Score system does not have a limit. It's basically how much energy a ghosts core produces. Danny's core is still stabilizing because he's a young ghost so he has potential to get stronger.**

 **Yas:** **I am too, glad that people still right Danny Phantom fics. And I too loved that show.**

 **That's all for this time folks, like I said if you have a suggestion for pairings mention it in the reviews and I'll consider it.**

 **Until the next chapter!**

 **-FriTik**

 **R &R**


	10. Ice Cold Memories

**So hello boys and girls how are we today?**

 **Now I have my regrets for how last chapter ended. I feel I made Danny's thoughts a bit too sporadic, admittedly that was the idea but I worry it went a bit too far. Oh well, not much I can do now and it served its purpose.**

 **Well technically I could go back to that chapter and change it but whatever I'm lazy.**

 **Anyway last chapter recap is as follows:**

 **-Danny distracted the Fentons**

 **-Ember went to the high school**

 **-Ember got beat by Sam and Tuck**

 **-Danny got pissed**

 **-Danny started remembering a bunch of stuff at the same time his ice powers started kicking in**

 **Well that was last time in a nutshell. Who's ready to see Frostbite?**

 **Anyway that's all I have to say now before the chapter begins.**

 **Here we go.**

* * *

Danny's POV…

" _Danny-boy!" His father called, "Come down here! We've finally done it!" His dad said regarding the completion of the Fenton Portal, the device his parents had been working on for as long as he could remember. He sighed and put down his comic book and was about to head down, "And call your sister too! She's going to love this!"_

The scene changed.

" _You named your PDA?" Danny asked with mild surprise, most people would be more so but he had known Tucker for years. This was one of the least surprising things he had done._

" _Of course I named her!" Tucker said defensively as if a world where electronic devices were named like humans was normal._

The images faded and were replaced by a new set.

 _Danny and Tucker stared in surprise at their goth friend. She had been particularly angry at her parents the day before and had said she would do something to get back at them. They had thought she would do something rash, but they hadn't expected her to do this…_

" _What are you two looking at?" Sam said in an annoyed tone of voice, slamming her locker closed. She seemed to be ignoring the looks she was getting by their other classmates. She was solely focused on the stares gained from her friends._

" _Nothing." They said together. After all shaving half your head to piss off your parents was a completely normal action, right?_

Where was he? What was happening?

The images changed again.

" _So x is equal to 4?" Danny asked his sister, looking up hopefully._

 _Jazz sighed in relief leaning back in her seat, "Yeah that's the answer little brother." She didn't have to say about time, they had been working on the same problem for the past twenty minutes._

" _On to the next one then." Danny sagged in his seat depressed. That had just been the first problem of the twenty question algebra homework._

Another change…

" _Hey Fen-turd!" Danny felt a blow to the back of his head and hissed in pain. Slouching forward and rubbing the back of his head._

" _Hope you're ready for highschool!" Dash called as he strut forward down the hall on the first day of school._

 _Danny slouched down further. Not even first period on the first day and Dash was already taking the time to mess with him. Just great. Sometimes he wished all of it would just stop._

Danny gasped and sat up bewildered.

He sat there staring blankly for a minute before he started becoming aware of his surroundings.

Where was he?

This wasn't his room.

No, wait his lair. Wait what?

He was in a room that looked to be made of ice. A light hung on the wall casting light a bright light on everything. How that didn't melt the room was anyone's guess. He specifically was in a bed that had blue covers. A closed door was on the far side of the room. Next to the door hung a black cloak.

How had he ended up here? Last thing he remembered he was studying with Jazz…

No, wait, he was talking to Tucker about his new PDA…

Or was he about to go see his parents try to get the Ghost Portal working again?

Suddenly his more recent memories came rushing back to him.

Ghost Portal. Dead. Ember. Clockwork. Ghost Zone. Phantom.

He lay back down and moaned and rubbed his head. What was all that? He had his memories of his life back was that it? But they seemed fractured and fuzzy. He tried to remember a specific event. A birthday party, anything big and specific but nothing came up besides fractured and out of context moments. He just had a general sense of what his life had been like.

He opened his eyes and glared at the ceiling. Why had he remembered all that? What was the point of it all? Had it been because he had been in Amity Park with Ember?

Oh crap.

The ghost hunters.

Danny's eyes went wide. He had been shot at by his parents and best friends. And neither party had known. Oh Clockwork he had beat up Sam and Tucker. He had nearly killed them and hadn't cared in the slightest.

He sat up again and threw off the covers. He turned and put his feet on the ground. His boots weren't on anymore. They were sitting at the foot of the bed actually. He stood up and suddenly shivered, it was really cold. But it was weird, it felt like he was colder on the inside than he was on the outside despite the fact the room was made out of ice.

Shivering he walked over to the icy wall and stared at the face reflected in it. For a moment he could imagine himself with marginally less pale skin, black hair and blue eyes. The image faded after a moment and he found himself staring at a now familiar pale face with a slightly green tinge, silvery white hair, and glowing green eyes.

Fenton. Phantom.

Phantom. Fenton.

Which one was he?

He whacked his head on the wall. Stop it Danny. You're Phantom, you can't change that, so what if you remember what things were like when you were alive, you're dead now and not coming back. Just look how Sam, Tucker, Mom and Dad responded to you!

But Jazz hadn't hated him. She had actually talked to him.

Danny grimaced, why couldn't his life- afterlife be simple. At this point he was ready to start breaking down again.

He turned and leaned against the wall sliding down until he was sitting with his knees against his chest and just below his chin. Whoever had decided ghosts should forget everything when they died should have made the memory loss more permanent. Why allow ghosts to get a glimpse of what they lost? To torment them for fun?

"Damn you whoever you are." He muttered out loud. It felt better to blame someone even though that someone probably didn't even exist.

For a brief moment he could've sworn the light dimmed. He shook his head, he was stressed and just imagining things.

Danny shivered again. He crossed his arms and started to rub his arms. Okay he got that being in a room made of ice would make him cold but it felt like the chill was coming from the inside. From him. He had felt chilly since he died but this was a whole new level.

Come to think of it where was he exactly? He had wondered earlier but hadn't thought exactly where this room was. His first thought was Klemper, who knows what that guy's lair looked like. This could very well be it. But he didn't picture Klemper having such a neat room anywhere near him.

Danny didn't have to wait much longer for his answer a few minutes later the door opened a huge furry form filled the entry way. Danny gasped in shock and scrambled backwards feeling fear.

"Calm yourself young one." The furry figure said in a surprising light tone. A sense of calm suddenly came over Danny but he couldn't identify what caused it. The figure in the door stepped into the light allowing Danny to see it fully.

The figure was huge and looked like a distant cousin of dogs judging by the head structure. He had two ears made of ice sticking up from the top of his head. He stood upright and was covered in white fur. His right arm however was missing and in its place was one made of solid ice. The yeti (Danny had to assume that's what it was for no other term quite matched) had on a purple cloak that made him appear quite regal.

"What, sorry, who are you?" Danny asked hesitantly repressing another shiver, "Also where am I?"

"I am sorry, for scaring you, my appearance is a bit threatening." The ghost seemed to muse. "As for who I am, my name is Frostbite and I am ruler of Far Frozen which is where you are now."

"Far Frozen?" Ember might've mentioned it, she said that she didn't like going there because she had a fire core and Far Frozen was well frozen. "Okay I know a bit about it, but why am I here? And how did I get here? The last thing I remember is getting to the Ghost Zone and blacking out." Danny asked.

"A ghost named Johnny 13 brought you here." Frostbite explained. "Apparently your friend Ember, found you nearly frozen over. As she has a fire core she asked Mr. 13 to bring you."

Danny nodded thinking, it made sense that Ember wouldn't be able to take him here. A fire core in did not do well in the cold. Similarly a ice core did not do well in hot places. He wasn't sure what Johny's core was, or even if it was specialized. Therefore he wouldn't have an issue bringing him here.

"How long was I out for?" Danny asked. Hopefully it wasn't too long a time.

"What happened to me?' He asked Frostbite, "I've been chilly since I died but that was something else entirely." He gave another involuntary shudder, "And I'm still cold!"

"That is relatively easy to explain." Frostbite smiled, "You are still a relatively young ghost, your core is still stabilizing itself. When whatever form a stress made that little episode happened it caused your core to morph and attempt to become relatively stable again. This resulted in the ah… upgrade you appear to have gone through."

Upgrade? That would be one word for it. Danny pushed himself to his feet. "But why is it so hard to keep repress? I'm just so cold." He rubbed his arms again.

"You can't repress your core." Frostbite said, "If you attempt to repress it, it will build up until you cannot keep it in anymore then it will freeze you, perhaps forever."

"Forever?" Danny said, his voice quiet with fear. Forever was a very real possibility for a ghost. He couldn't exactly get older, he could change his form admittedly but it would take some concentration and wouldn't mean much other than a difference in appearance. Heck he could make himself look like a little kid if he tried hard enough. He couldn't change his appearance other than that and a change of clothes.

"What do I do then?' Danny asked.

"You must learn to control it!" Frostbite said happily, "If you let the cold control you it will freeze you but if you maintain control of it you can do many things! We of Far Frozen are the masters of cold control." the yeti held out his hand and a small blue crystal formed there.

"Cool." Danny said pun intended.

"Indeed it is. Now come we had best begin." Frostbite said and turned back to the door. "Also you may want to take the cloak, the cold won't bother you much but the winds here are fierce and may cause discomfort." He gestured to the hook on the wall.

Danny followed Frostbite stopping to put his boots back on. He had white socks, honestly he hadn't even thought about what he had on under his boots, didn't seem to matter before. He paused at the door and grabbed the cloak. He buckled the small silver clasp and tailed the larger ghost.

Walking through Far Frozen was interesting to say the least. All the ghosts there appeared to be yetis like Frostbite which confused him to no end. How could there be so many yetis? They weren't real right?

Frostbite seemed to sense his unanswered question. "No, what humans call yetis are not real, we of Far Frozen were born from the idea of ice monsters which was passed down for generations by certain human cultures." he explained.

"Oh." Danny's eyes widened, from what Clockwork said about ghosts born from stories or ideas these ghosts were pretty strong.

After walking for a bit they went through a doorway into an arena of some kind. The people of Far Frozen sat in the stands talking.

"Uh Frostbite?" Danny asked, "Why are they all watching?"

"Well this being a frozen wasteland it does get a bit boring from time to time." Frostbite admitted looking a tiny bit guilty. "We get what entertainment we can."

"So in this case me?" Danny asked. He shrugged, "It's fine at least they're not purposefully putting me through suffering." He winced as he thought about Dash, maybe he should get back on that jerk next time he went through the portal.

But did he want to go back through the portal?

"Anyway," Danny looked at Frostbite pushing back thoughts about his human existence, "Where do we begin?" He asked feeling a bit eager

* * *

 _One training montage later complete with music, special effects, and cameos by Robert Downy Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch. It was actually quite spectacular wasn't it and remember the part when..._

 _Oh right you didn't see it..._

 _Anyway..._

"Well that went…" Danny looked around at the arena, "Okay, I guess."

"It could have gone worse?" Frostbite suggested with a shrug. He now had a bandage wrapped around his eye and his furry arm was in a sling.

The arena had seen better days. There were now big frozen ramps and ice spikes and a number of the spectators had various bandages themselves. Thankfully Danny now seemed to have full control of his ice powers so incidents like that shouldn't happen too much anymore.

"Sorry about that." Danny said looking down in shame and rubbing the back of his neck.

"It is alright, we have rather advanced medical technology here. Everyone should be back to full health in a few days." Frostbite said comfortingly.

"Still, I feel kinda bad." Danny admitted.

"I think all will be forgiven if you don't come here to practice anymore." Frostbite said helpfully.

"That's probably for the best…" Danny said.

He still felt cold but it was less ravaging than before. Now it felt a bit comforting to feel the chill inside.

He looked back up as an idea occurred to him. He would wait until he left to try it out, he had already caused enough damage here, but still it would be fun if it worked. Not to mention really handy in the future.

"So I'll get going then." Danny said to Frostbite and floated up, "Do you want my cloak back?" He asked grasping the little clasp.

"You may keep it, it suits you well." Frostbite told him.

"Thanks for everything Frosty." Danny waved, turned and took flight into the green swirls of the Zone.

Before he tried his idea he had better find Cujo. Who knows what that dog was up to.

 _Some time later_...

Danny couldn't help but laugh as he looked at the scene below him. Apparently Ember had gone looking for Cujo while Danny was out of it in Far Frozen.

Well, she found him alright.

"Get this mutt off me!" Ember seethed as Cujo held her were on one of the floating islands in the was in his giant form and giving out free licks to any rock star ghosts in the area.

"Cujo heel!" Danny called down.

The dog's head perked up at the sound of his voice and he shrunk down. An instant later the free licks now extended all teenage ghosts in the area as the little dog crashed into Danny's arms and started licking his face happily tail wagging behind him.

"Yeah I'm glad to see you too boy." Danny said giving the dog an affectionate pat on the head. Meanwhile Ember stood up looking a tad unhappy.

"Oh sure you shrink down for him!" She said angrily and crossed her arms.

"What can I say? He likes me better." Danny said as Cujo calmed down and stopped licking but his tail kept wagging.

"Let's keep it that way." Ember said, "Anyway I see you've recovered from whatever _that_ was." she said talking about his little icy incident. "What was going on there anyway, you seemed beyond pissed when you showed up."

"According to Frostbite my core is still a bit unstable because I'm a young ghost, therefore it can still change and morph. That incident was a result of all my stress building up." Danny explained to her.

"And you were so stressed because?" She asked expectantly.

"Would you believe me if I mentioned I'd been getting strange urges whenever I see anyone helpless in trouble?" Danny asked hesitantly.

Ember's eyes widened. "Well shit." She said, "I think we may have just found your obsession."

"Wait that's how obsessions work? Clockwork was a bit vague about it." Danny said surprised.

"He tends to be. But yeah an obsession will urge you on to do whatever is important to hold onto it. In your case it looks like helping the helpless, which is lame by the way." She finished.

"Hey, it's not that lame." Danny said put out at her calling it lame.

"Whatever you say dipstick. But is that all it was that was causing you problems?" She looked at him suspiciously.

Danny was quiet for a minute, he really didn't want to talk about his human life. He still planned to go to Clockwork even if he didn't have to ask about the weird urges he was getting. Should he mention it?

"Yeah that was it." He said hoping she would take his hesitation for thinking to see if anything else could have helped cause the issues.

"Uh-huh." She said clearly not buying it but she didn't say anything. She sighed, "Well go ahead and say it."

"Say what?" Danny asked a bit confused.

"That you were right. That trying to take over the human world was a bad idea. I just needed people cheering me on." Ember kicked a rock in annoyance.

He remembered how she responded when he tried insisting about not using her hypnotic powers to force people to love her music. A thought occurred to him that made sense now seeing things in hindsight.

"Your obsession," He paused, "It's to become the greatest rock star in the world, right?" He guessed. Looking back it made sense. Guess he was a bit clueless at times.

"Yep." Ember said, "I figured the best way to do that was to use my powers to hypnotize people into loving it. They wouldn't be able to help themselves. I would be the best rock star ever. Hands down all around."

Her eyes dropped, "And look how that turned out, I nearly got ended by two wannabe ghost hunters too big for their britches."

Danny felt his eye twitch at the mention of Sam and Tuck. On one hand he wanted to defend them. On the other hand he wasn't sure he could forgive how carelessly they were willing to end his friend. But hadn't he responded with similar carelessness? If he hadn't recognized Sam would he have killed her?

He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that.

"Well you didn't get ended so you got another shot." Danny said, "You can try again, without the hypnotism stuff this time. Also away from Amity and all its ghost hunters." He really didn't want to be at the end of any of their blasters again. Before it had been easy. They were just faceless hunters who thought all ghosts were evil.

Now he knew they were his family and friends. But they didn't know who he was. Did it even matter to them? Would they even care if they knew it was him? He really didn't want to think about it.

"Yeah maybe someday," Ember agreed, "But I've had enough of the human world for the time being."

"I feel the same way." Danny admitted. For the most part he didn't want to go back. But a part of him longed to go see his friends and family again. Even if they did kinda hate him now.

"Oh yeah." Danny snapped his fingers and let Cujo down. The puppy floated next to him looking at him in curiosity.

He held out his hand and concentrated. A long rod of ice appeared hovering above his hand. The majority of the rod floated over air while a small portion remained over his hand.

Ember stared in surprise. "That's a new trick."

"Not done yet." Danny set grunting a bit with effort. He concentrated and the rod began to change from a simple stick of ice into an actual shape.

Just above his hand the rod stretched out and formed a guard. The rod beyond that both flattened out and broadened. The end of the rod ended in a sharp tip that sloped down until meeting the broad part. Below Danny's hand an ice crystal formed, slightly bigger than his thumb. When he finished it was obvious what the rod had become.

He had created himself an ice sword.

Danny grinned and gave the blade a few slices through the air. He had tried to make it as balanced as possible and from what he could it had worked perfectly.

"A sword?" Ember asked sounding a bit incredulous.

"Yeah why not? It won't melt unless I want it to." Danny explained as he hefted the blade onto his shoulder. "All I need is a scabbard and I can take it with me all the time."

"Yeah but why do you need a sword dipstick? I've seen you blow up rocks bigger than this one with your bare hands." Ember pointed at the chunk she was standing on.

It was true during his training binge after he met Poindexter, Danny had practiced using his ecto-blasts until he felt he had mastered control of them. He could now do anything from knocking something over to, well, blowing up small islands in the ghost zone.

"Well it's cool isn't it?" Danny smirked a bit.

"Yeah I get it, it's cool because it's made of ice. Very funny." Ember crossed her arms and huffed.

She was still pretty down about what happened in the human world, Danny noted, but how to cheer her up…

"Hey I heard Walker's been being a bit more of a jerk recently." Danny casually mentioned, it wasn't true as he had been out of it for a few days but Walker was always a huge jerk, so it didn't really matter, "Maybe we should see if this thing can cut through prison bars." Danny suggested giving his sword another swing.

"Hmm it might, but I do wonder if my guitar can blast through prison _walls_." Ember said pretending to be deeply contemplating it. "Of course two of us hardly stand a chance against an entire prison of guards…"

"Oh certainly, it's a shame too, if only we knew other troublemakers who would love to have a go at Walker." Danny said with a smile.

"Tomorrow?" Ember suggested.

"If you can manage with your busy schedule." Danny concurred before turning, "I gotta go do something."

"You better be there or I will make you sorry." Ember warned menacingly.

"I believe you!" Danny called as he flew into the zone with Cujo following him. He really needed to talk to Clockwork.

* * *

 **So I'm going to end it there for now.**

 **Oh Danny, you poor, poor, ghost you.**

 **But as you can all see, Danny now has his ice powers! Yay! Isn't that exciting!?**

 **Anyway last chapter this story made few milestones. It cracked fifty favorites, sixty reviews and has more than five thousand views total! Honestly I did not expect to get this to get so far. Honestly this started as a spur of the moment idea back in February. It sat there for awhile until people started reviewing asking for more. So I put out the two notes with the options.**

 **And here we are now. Wow.**

 **It's review time now, and I'm going to say I really do love getting feedback from you guys.**

 **GirlFIsh: There will be no Danny ending for the time being, maybe later though. Muahaha. But as to Tucker and Sam finding out first, no not quite, I have a plan for them finding out and it's going to be a part of a major plot point for this story.**

 **BaconLover1800: Maybe he will be, who knows? I do! But honestly I'm not going to spoil anything about Pariah this early. He hasn't even me Vlad yet!**

 **Kimera20: Thanks, I'm glad you think so, I honestly didn't feel that happy with it but it was the best I could come up with at the time. Moving on a Dora/Danny pairing… Hmm… I supposed that could be interesting to write, I can't remember the last time I saw those two paired. As to Dani, I mentioned in one of my earlier notes she will show up. As to how? Please see chapter three for hints.**

 **Charmeleon: The answer is D, none of the above! Yeah there will be a talk but some stuff is going to happen that first which is going to shake what Sam and Tuck know about ghosts. Also as to whether or not he's ready to save the world? Heck no! But then really who is ready to save the world when it comes down to it? Someone has to, and that duty can often fall to the one who just wants to help and do what's right.**

 **GhostWantsStory: I'm glad you like the story and think I'm doing the characters accurately. And really there's a story like that on Wattpad? There's a story called Danny Phantom Reversal on this website that has a similar premise to that, except the entire Fenton family is dead and has been dead.**

 **J of Darkness: Yeah I can see how you might feel that way about the obsession voice. But that's the point it's supposed to be weird and creepy. As to TaKiNg CaRe Of HiS fRiEnDs PeRmAnEnTlY, huh that would actually be a good premise for an evil!danny fic.**

 **Enigmaticpencil: I actually have been toying around with a ghost portal opening up and canon team phantom end up meeting this Danny but I have no idea when and if it will actually happen. If I don't put it in this story I might make a side story. And there's Danny remembering his family and friends, but they don't know about him yet!**

 **ImpudentMiscegenation: Oh wow 100 reviews? Do you really think it's that good? Maybe I should give myself more credit… I'm glad you think it's well written with character development. I have been trying.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: You know I want to make a wizard of Oz joke here but I can't think of one right now. As to Sam hearing him mutter her name… Time will tell.**

 **Rhetorical: Better late than dead. Which is what a good portion of the characters in this are. I'm glad you like it and here is more to read. Also what's up with the letters at the bottom?**

 **Well that's it for reviews this time. Speaking of wow that was more than I've had to cover in one chapter before. Cool.**

 **Any that's all folks!**

 **-FriTIk**

 **R &R**


	11. Of Time, Ghosts and Magic

**Well, well, well.**

 **Look who's come back for more fanfiction?**

 **I'm sure you all want to find out what's going to happen next in this story so I'm going to have to deliver.**

 **So as I'm sure you're all aware (at least in the northern hemisphere) summer is almost here. This being said I am going to have more time to write! You may commence with the pleasantries.**

 **Also am I the only one who feels old at this point in life? I mean I'm halfway through high school…**

 **I'm old enough to drive…**

 **I'm old enough to have a job (already applied to one actually)...**

 **I just feel like it was yesterday I was plopped on the couch watching this show as well as others with a childlike lack of understanding of the world.**

 **Makes songs like Stressed Out really hit me.**

 **Anyway this chapter I'm introducing another OC of mine. Those of you who have sent me OCs don't worry I'm just working them into the story still.**

 **Anyway the OC of mine is another specialized ghost like Frostbite. But this one has a core type of arcane. For those who don't know what arcane is, basically magic. In this story magic is a form of energy that remains unaffected by the laws of physics. Make sense?**

 **Yeah still trying to figure out what different core types there will be. So far I got:**

 **-Magic/Arcane**

 **-Electrical**

 **-Fire**

 **-Ice**

 **It's a work in progress.**

 **Anyway this note has gone on long enough! Chapter time!**

* * *

 _Clockwork POV, Ghost Zone…._

Clockwork floated in his tower patiently.

Most of his time was spent watching the timestream for irregularities. Occasionally he would review the past ensuring nothing had been changed by meddler's or the occasional ghost portal that opened in the past.

So it was rather pleasant to get visitors.

Normally these visitors came in two forms. The more pleasurable being a new ghost confused about their new existence. It was nice to help the new entity understand their strange new surroundings.

The second kind of visitors he got were less enjoyable to talk with but it was still amusing to annoy them which he could do as they had no choice but to put up with him. Those were the observants. The fools could only see time linearly. They had no idea what it was like seeing time as it truly was with its endless possibilities.

Seeing all the timelines that could have been, all the lives that never happened because someone died or a couple never met. It was one of the reasons he tried to avoid tampering with the timestream. It was bittersweet to watch one happy family grow older together at the expense of another that never even happened.

But it could have happened, and no one would mourn those children who were never born save for him.

That was another reason he enjoyed visitors. They helped him forget all the people, kind, cruel, friendly, harsh, enthusiastic, and un-interested people, that never had the chance to live.

Today though the two visitors he would be meeting fit into either category but he had met one of them through his normal visitation schedule.

However before he met that one he was to speak with another old ghost. Not as old as he was but ancient all the same. The subject of the visit however was no pleasant matter.

A light behind him that cast his shadow over his viewscreen announced the arrival of said visitor.

" **Clockwork."** a voice that was not so much heard as felt called, **"I must speak with you urgently."**

"Anomalus" Clockwork greeted turning as his form aged into his bearded appearance.

The ghost before him was difficult to describe. It was born from humans belief in magic and witchcraft. Upon forming in the ghost zone thousands of years earlier the ghosts core actually contained traces of true magic. It had been surprising to the ghosts who existed at the time, they had scoffed at humans belief in magic. Well most of them did, Clockwork being the exception. Of course humans lacked understanding of what magic actually was. It was just a form of energy that failed to obey the laws of the physical universe.

Anomalus's form was long and skinny. It had no legs and instead hovered above the ground with a straight ghostly tail. Its arms were long and ended in four pointed fingers. Its entire form glowed blue and constantly shifted dimensions. Above what could be called its shoulders was a lump that could be called a head with two slits that glowed white.

" **You know why I am here, the seers among my people have had…"** The old ghost paused, **"Very unsettling visions of what is to come."** Anomalus finished.

"Yes." Clockwork agreed, "I know what they have seen. I see all that could come."

" **Then you know what could happen if the timeline continues this path."** Anomalus declared.

"Yes I know what the halfa plans to do." Clockwork said, his viewscreen changed to show the halfa called Vlad Plasmius. His vampiric appearance was a fairly accurate representation of the hybrid's personality.

At the moment the screen showed Plasmius looking over a hand drawn map of the Ghost Zone and looking very frustrated about something.

"He plans to take the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire to give himself power to rule over the human world and the Ghost Zone." Clockwork narrated, "In doing so he will unleash Pariah Dark who will attempt to reinstate his regime."

" **Yes, and that is where the timeline splits, either Pariah is defeated and Plasmius fails to get the items he seeks, or Pariah rules once more. Me seers have foreseen both of these outcomes"** the magic ghost responded in what could be called irritation.

"Exactly so I don't know what you're worried about." Clockwork said hoping the other ghost would take the bait. Admittedly Pariah on his throne again was a less than savory ending but no king rules forever, not even a ghostly one.

" **My seers have also seen what Plasmius will attempt to steal should his quest fail."** Anomalus announced, **"You know the chaos the halfa will reap if he gets his grubby and unworthy hands on the Tome of the Ancients."**

The corner of Clockworks lip twitched as he took his childlike form, he had hoped Anomalus's seers with their sketchy at best visions of the future would not know of what Vladimir would seek if his current plan should fail.

The Tome of the Ancients, which was very aptly named, was a book that contained knowledge on, essentially, everything powerful. It was discovered long before their universe or any other currently in existence had even begun to take form. Even in that time eons ago the book already appeared old. It seemed impossible that a novel of paper and bound in leather could survive as long as it had.

Its origins were unknown other than that it was written by an author who knew exactly what they were talking about. Rumors say that the author knew he was approaching the end of his life and wanted to ensure his knowledge would not be lost should the need for it ever arise again.

Unfortunately the believed intended purpose was never fulfilled. Every time the book appeared throughout history devastation followed. It led to great civilizations being erased, gods falling to mortal men, and universes collapsing or shattering. Eventually it was locked away in the Vault of Time. A place so secure not even Clockwork had any idea, where and _when_ it even was.

"The likelihood of him finding the Tome of the Ancients is little to none." Clockwork defended not wanting to let the other ghost know how actually worried he was about that possible timeline. "Even I do not know where to find it, how would Plasmius have any chance of success?"

" **And yet my seers have foreseen this timeline. Do not play me for a fool time master I know my seers do not have your knowledge of timestreams. They only see what is most likely to occur."** Anomalus paused and seemed at odds with itself, **"I would prefer to see the tyrant on his throne once more than the power the Tome of the Ancients brings unleashed upon our universe."**

"From your own words your seers do not have my knowledge of timestreams!" Clockwork crowed, "Those two possibilities are the most likely yes, but there are other more favorable ones." the time master continued.

"And should the issue of Plasmius chasing after the Tome arise I have plans to stop him from reaching his goal." Clockwork finished.

" **And just who or what would this plan entail?"** Anomalus asked skeptically.

"One who has had and will have perpetual success with beating the odds." Clockwork smirked as he returned to his young adult form. "He is not ready yet but given time and training which he shall have, I am sure he will be."

" **What if your are wrong?"** Anomalus asked quietly. **"What if this one you speak of is not ready when the time comes? Are you willing to risk our universe in his hands?"**

"I have seen the good that could come with his success." Clockwork explained, "My interference however shall create a worse still timeline." It was mostly true, that timeline's ending was extremely unfavorable.

" **I will… consider this."** the master of magic decided. The room hummed. **"But know this, when the time comes, I will act on what I believe is best for us all."**

"I would expect no less." Clockwork agreed as a blinding light surrounded Anomalus. In a flash he was gone, no evidence that he had been there save for the feeling of static charge in the air.

Clockwork turned with a sigh as the viewscreen faded into a glowing green crystalline fortress. "We all must do what we believe is best." He gripped his staff tighter and the image faded into nothing.

The time master waved his hand a table and chairs appeared on the ground, Sitting on the table was a specifically designed sword scabbard Clockwork had asked Pandora for weeks earlier. He had another visitor to attend to. One who would require training to do what was needed…

* * *

 _Danny POV…_

Danny sighed in relief as he saw the giant turning gears ahead of him. He had been starting to worry he was heading the wrong way, which wouldn't be too surprising considering he had only been to Clockwork's tower once in his afterlife.

But it seemed like he was lucky. Hopefully he wouldn't have to make up that luck in the near future…

A few moments later the clock tower came into view. Still looking creepy and menacing and like a cliche haunted house. He landed in front of the door with Cujo soon following. The ghost dog let out a whine that could be clearly translated as nervous.

"It's fine boy." Danny said holding his new ice sword loosely. The door suddenly creaked open startling the both of them. Cujo let out a yelp and ducked behind Danny's legs.

"Really Cujo? You're a ghost dog who can grow giant and you're scared of a door opening on its own?" Danny asked condescendingly. Cujo looked up at him with a pleading look in his eyes.

"Fine wait out here." Danny said and crossed the threshold of the tower.

The inside was just as he remembered it with tall looming walls and spinning gears. Not to mention the constant annoying ticking sound. How did Clockwork put up with that noise forever?

"Once you get used to it, it is barely noticeable." A voice from the main room said just as Danny entered. Clockwork, in his old man form, sat at a table with a cup of tea and a saucer in his hands.

"How did you know what I was thinking? Did you read my mind?" Danny asked, sure the guy was supposed to know everything but could he really read minds too?

"I did not read your mind young Phantom." Clockwork said taking a sip of his tea and shifting to his normal adult form. "I simply knew what you were about to ask me."

"Oh…" Danny trailed off before catching sight of what was sitting on the table. "Is that a..?"

"Sword scabbard?" Clockwork raised an eyebrow, "Yes, designed specifically for that blade of yours."

Danny having now reached the table picked up the scabbard. It was a silvery white along with the belt it was attached to. He put it on and sure enough his hand-and-a-half sword slid perfectly into the casing. He couldn't help but grin.

"Now that you have your holster, I believe that there was a reason you came to me?' Clockwork asked.

"Yeah…" Danny said, now that he was here to talk about it he quite wasn't sure where to begin.

"You're wondering why exactly you remembered who you were." Clockwork said shifting to his child form, "And you're wondering why you don't remember everything."

"That and more." Danny said annoyed at how much he didn't know about his situation.

"This is a difficult thing to explain Daniel. What people call souls or spirits is essentially your mind, all your memories make you who you are. Electrical signals fire your neurons and allow you to remember information. When you died those signals imprinted on the ectoplasm of the ghost zone and were essentially cut and pasted."

"Unfortunately, ecto-energy is not the same as electricity, though the two do bare many similarities." Clockwork continued, "The energy transferred and created a form based on what self image could be conceived from the electrical signals, now ecto-energy, meaning the transfer was not perfect. This is why you look different now. But as the ecto-energy versions of your memories settle they begin to give you some recollections of your life. They will never be the memories they once were but it does give you some idea of who you used to be."

"Ummm…" Danny said having trouble following the explanation. "In English please?"

Clockwork sighed and shifted to old man form. "What did I expect? You're fourteen!"

"Well I'm not exactly getting any older." Danny huffed.

"Fair enough. In simpler terms, your memories transferred to your ghost form but they didn't copy perfectly. Like a corrupted hard drive, only it still functions." Clockwork explained.

"So there isn't some being who's in charge of how ghosts form and how their memories work?" Danny asked remembering his earlier thoughts.

"I didn't say that." Clockwork said darkly shifting into child form. "I suggest you avoid that subject, it's dangerous at the best of times."

"Noted." Danny said dropping it, but he was still curious about the subject. He moved on to his next question instead. "When I was in Amity Park, my… parents." He said awkwardly, "Told me that all ghosts were evil and emotionless creatures, Sa- the purple ghost hunter said something like that too. I'm pretty sure I'm not evil and emotionless, right?"

"A common misconception among humans who attempt to study our world." Clockwork admitted sadly. "Ghosts don't have brains like humans do and the emotions humans experience are caused by chemical reactions there. So most ghost hunters and other scientists in the field would of course believe ghosts don't have real emotions save for memories of them."

"While it is true that we don't and can't experience emotions the same way as humans, we do indeed have them. Like humans have chemical reactions in the brain, we have energy reactions in our cores that produce something similar." Clockwork finished his explanation.

"I think I followed that." Danny decided.

"Excellent." Clockwork stated shifting to his adult form. "It occurs to me I left you without any resources to go to aside from me when you have questions. Therefore I recommend the Ghostwriter as he has come to call himself."

"Ghostwriter?" Danny asked skeptically, "As in ghost writer of books?"

"Yes, he has spent his afterlife writing everything he has learned. His works include detailed accounts of the Ghost Zone's history and accurate pieces on ghostly biology and form. I would suggest you investigate, you may find you enjoy reading more than you did as a human." The time master explained.

"I'll be the judge of that." Danny decided and stood up. "Well thanks Clockwork, this had been helpful I guess."

"I would hope so, also I should mention that while he may not be as eager to help you with your cryo-kinetic abilities after your initial training, Frostbite is an excellent fighter." Clockwork casually mentioned.

"Really?" Danny asked, "The guy seemed like a big cold fluff ball."

"Who says a fluff ball can not be dangerous in a fight?" Clockwork countered.

"Fair enough." Danny admitted and turned to leave but paused.

"Oh before I go," He turned back around, "The hunters mentioned a bunch of numbers occasionally when they pointed a device at me. What exactly were those?'

"While we ghosts have our classification system, humans scan our cores energy output for a determination on power." Clockwork told him. "It's just another way of ranking our power."

"Huh." Danny said, he was honestly surprised. Ember had told him she was a high-level B-class ghost. He had almost twice as much power as she did from the last scan Tucker had done on him. What did that mean? Just how strong was he?

"Thanks again Clockwork." He said distracted and flew out of the clock tower leaving the closest person to father time behind.

"Come on Cujo." Danny called to his dog as he flew overhead. The puppy yipped, and followed him, clearly happy to be leaving the tower behind. He changed direction and headed for his lair. It had been a long week.

* * *

 **Yeah, yeah I know, it was a bit short but I've spent a lot of time studying these past few days and I wanted to get something out for you guys.**

 **What did you think of Anomalus? He won't be showing up for a little while but he has a part to play in what is to come.**

 **Anyway the chapters to come are going to be a bit more episode like, each one covering a sub-plot. So they will be longer, but it might take me longer to write them but seeing as I'm out of school ( And this early too!) I'm going to have a bunch more time to write them!**

 **Furthermore next time we're going to break into a prison with Danny! This is actually going to play an important part in the future believe it or not. You'll see what I mean next time.**

 **Reviews!**

 **J of Darkness: I'm just going to copy the PM I sent you explaining this. That should cover it for anyone else who is confused.**

 **It's based on self image. After I wrote my first draft of this I realized that it wouldn't make sense for Danny to be able to change his clothes and nothing else about himself. I mentioned in chapter three that appearance was based a ghosts self image so if Danny felt he should look older then his form should change to match that and vice versa. But there would be no reason for him to see himself as someone else, so he wouldn't be able to change his appearance apart from that. A wardrobe change isn't anything special, just a change in taste. It's like how Amorpho can make himself look like anyone, it's because he sees himself as an actor.**

 **Kimera20: Sorry but you're going to have to wait a little while to see that part. I got some stuff to cover with Danny that will have him mature a bit. He's got a lot of other stuff to deal with right now. But for the record I too am excited for that part.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: "The great and powerful Oz has spoken!"**

 **Yes Frostbite! and to counter, *Goes into defense mode* That was written from Danny's POV so to him it looked like they were ice ears! And the ice arm was on Danny's right side. And thank you for thinking it's a great chapter, I do try to include references to the show.**

 **GirlFIsh: You're going to have to wait and see what happens there. And the GiW will turn up, just not yet.**

 **IcyPooltheWarrior: Glad you love the story and I can't believe it but I actually needed a character just like that for potion making. Jeez what are the odds thank you.**

 **ImpudentMiscegenation : Thank you for the encouragement, it honestly means a lot.**

 **RhetoricalAnswer: I'm glad you think it's well written but I wouldn't say it's flawless…**

 **Mystic Mira 8: The future is now! Here is the update!**

 **Well that's it for reviews this time.**

 **Tune in next time to listen to a prison warden with a southern accent drone on about rules no one (save him and his guards) gives a damn and a half about!**

 **See ya later!**

 **-FriTIk**

 **R &R**


	12. Jail Break

**Look! Up in the sky!**

 **It's a bird!**

 **It's a plane!**

 **It's a ghost!**

 **No it's a cloud you idiots. Honestly I know they're supposed to look like things but you dumb asses are taking it too far.**

 **Enough calling myself rude names.**

 **We have a chapter of the story ahead of us!**

 **Last time;**

 **-Clockwork got sad about people who never got to be born**

 **-Clockwork talked to Anomalus about the Tome of the Ancients**

 **-Danny came to Clockwork with his problems and got a sword scabbard**

 **-Clockwork told Danny a bunch of sciency stuff I had to research to make sure I had it right!**

 **That's about it for the last chapter. This chapter will be longer! Also we get to really get the plot started!**

 **So without further delay, let us begin.**

* * *

 _Danny POV October 13, 2004…_

"Okay then, let's do roll call." Danny decided. The group was about a mile from Walker's prison at the moment.

"Dipstick there are five of us, six counting your dog, we don't need to do roll call." Ember said face palming. She was dressed in her normal punk rocker outfit with her guitar strapped around her shoulder.

"Oh what am I, chopped liver?" The skeletal parrot sitting on Youngblood's shoulder asked. Youngblood was dressed as a pirate complete with hook, peg leg, jacket and hat.

"No you're a skeleton parrot." The pirate ghost kid said confused at why his parrot would think he was chopped liver.

"Okay then seven of us." Ember said, "That's still not much of a difference."

"I believe you're forgetting shadow?" Johnny 13, dressed in his normal punk I hate my parents outfit, asked as his bad luck shadow appeared right next to him and Kitty, both of whom were sitting on Johnny's bike as shadow floated nearby.

"Okay fine, there's eight of us, unless anyone else has another companion or someone else would like to come forward?" Ember asked rhetorically.

After a moment of silence in which no one said anything Ember smirked. "Okay good."

"Eight of us against an entire prison? I still don't like these odds." Kitty decided.

"To be fair the inmates will probably join in once we get started." Johnny explained to her. It was common knowledge that the inmates felt they had been wrongly imprisoned (and most of them probably were) and would be itching for a chance to get out.

"I think we should probably try to actively avoid the high security cells." Danny mentioned recalling some of the stories he had heard involving Walker's prison..

"I'm with Phantom on that one." Youngblood agreed with him.

The high security cells were where Walker and his goons put the ghosts who were actually vicious and dangerous. Most of them were high power A-class ghosts but rumors were they had actually managed to lock up an S-class ghost or two. How Walker managed something like that was anyone's guess but that's what some escaped inmates had claimed.

"Sure." Ember said while Kitty and Johnny both gave a nod. Youngblood's parrot agreed with his the ghost child and Shadow seemed to be indifferent while Cujo was currently chasing his tail in circles occasionally barking at it.

"So are we going to make a plan, or are we going in guns blazing so to speak?" Youngblood's parrot asked the group.

"I really want to see if I can break down the walls with this." Ember said fondly patting her guitar without actually playing it.

"And I really want to see that." Kitty decided wanting to be with one of her few female friends.

"In that case Youngblood, Johnny, Cujo and I can cause a distraction up front. That should give you ample opportunity do thus jailhouse rock." Danny grinned at his joke about the prison and the island it sat on..

Johnny groaned and rested his head on his bikes handle bars. "Lame" He groaned out.

"Oh shut up like you could do better." Danny argued.

"Yes I could!" Johnny agreed sitting up and crossing his arms.

"Knock it off you two!" Kitty shouted and slapped Johnny on the back of the head causing him to flinch.

"Why'd you only hit me?" He whined at his girlfriend glancing back at her.

"Because you're my boyfriend meaning I need to make sure you behave. Also Phantom is way over there." Kitty reached out and exaggeratingly waved her hand at Danny who cracked a grin at the couple's antics.

Johnny grumbled something about that not being fair and crossed his arms and glared straight ahead.

"Okay then when we have the guards distracted enough I'll give you two a signal to let it rock." Danny pointed at Ember and Kitty.

"How will we know the signal?" Ember asked him skeptically.

"Oh trust me you'll know it when you see it." Danny smiled with possibly a tad too many teeth. He hadn't had much time to practice it but he had managed it on a small scale with relative ease. It shouldn't be to hard to make it bigger.

Hopefully anyway.

Ember mumbled something about that not explaining what to look for but Danny conveniently ignored her input on the matter.

"Okay then, let's get going." Danny clapped his hands together and smirked.

Time Skip a few minutes later...

Danny, Cujo, Johnny and his Shadow, and Youngblood and his parrot floated invisibly a several meters from the prison gates. The gates appeared to be guarded only by two ghosts. They were green and wore police uniforms and riot gear. They did however lack legs and instead had ghostly tails. Their eyes were both pure red.

They looked almost completely identical from where the group was floating.

"They don't look that tough!" Youngblood declared. "I bet I could take down the whole prison easy!"

"Shush kid!" Johnny ordered the physically younger ghost before the guards heard his rant. "Yeah you could take on some of them, but try having the entire army coming down on top of us. Think you'll be able to take them then?"

Youngblood pouted put off despite the fact no one else could see him. Of course Danny didn't have to see him to know he was doing that.

"Well I think we should knock, it would be rude not to!" Danny decided. He turned himself visible and flew straight up to the pair of guards. He heard the distinct noise of a palm meeting a forehead behind him and smiled at Johnny's expense.

"Hey!" Danny called to the guards who immediately looked on edge and pulled out their riot sticks. They floated closer to Danny trying their best to look menacing.

"State your business here punk." The left guard, who Danny mentally dubbed Guard One.

"Yeah, this is a prison." The guard on the right who was dubbed Guard Two added in. Oh what impressive intelligence was being dealt with here.

"Really!?" Danny asked in mock surprise. "This is a prison!? I had no idea! I mean it's not like it has big menacing walls with barbed wire on top and every single window is covered with bars! If you hadn't told me otherwise I would still think that this was a Fast Food Place! Honest mistake, my bad, sorry guys."

"You makin' fun of us punk?" Guard One grunted at Danny while rhythmically thumping his riot stick into the palm of his hand.

"I'm not the warden but I'm pretty sure that it's against the rules to do that." Guard Two added in crossing his arms.

"Jeez! You two need to chill out!." Danny yelled the last two words and thrust his hand out from underneath his cloak. He let the cold flow through him as a light blue beam blasted out of his hand and hit the guards. A moment later the two were completely frozen in solid ice.

"Hey guys!" Danny called back to his friends, "I got a couple of Copsicles here!"

"Ha! Copsicles! Good one." Youngblood snickered as he faded into few next to him with his parrot still sitting on his shoulder. Cujo soon followed appearing near Danny's feet.

"I should've gone with the girls, you two are both just kids." Johnny complained motorcycle appearing next to them.

"Yeah well you're uh… A stupid adult!" Youngblood defended himself stomping his foot despite there not being any ground beneath him.

His parrot squawked before saying, "That was a terrible comeback."

"I didn't ask you, ya know." Youngblood shot back as Danny turned his attention to the now unguarded prison gates. He yanked his cloak's hood up. No real reason for doing that, he just figured it would make him look cooler.

"So should the gates have a sudden case of bad luck, get hit by cannon ball or be blasted to smithereens?" Danny asked his co-conspirators.

"Well we want to get their attention so blowing it to smithereens might be the best bet for that." Youngblood's parrot reasoned. Danny decided that he really needed to find out what that bird's name was.

"Fair enough." Danny agreed and held up his hand. It glowed green with ecto-energy. An orb of green appeared in his palm that flickered dangerously.

With a thought he sent the blast soaring at the prison gates. As soon as the energy sphere met the solid gates it flashed a neon green and exploded completely shattering the gates and causing Danny to squint and cover his eyes from the brightness.

A few seconds later he could see clearly again. The gates had been reduced to rubble. A half moment later the prison's alarms started blaring.

"I think that got their attention." Youngblood's parrot noted.

"Really? I couldn't have guessed." Johnny snorted at the ghost bird. THe group moved towards the prison and landed once they entered the ruined gates.

A wave of guards in similar attire to the two frozen copsicles charged at them from the inside of the prison. Some stayed near the ground of the prison while others flew over their comrades heads.

(AN: Feel free to play Riot: By Three Days Grace but it's not required)

"Oh right, uh avast ye land lovers!" Youngblood got over his momentary surprise and shouted at the oncoming troops. He pulled out a rapier sword and held it ready. His parrot rolled sighed and told him, "It's landlubbers not land lovers."

"Really? But wouldn't land lover make more sense?" Youngblood questioned.

"This is not the time." Danny said and started shooting ecto-blasts at the incoming ghosts. He didn't need to aim at specifically, there were so many he couldn't help but hit one. Whenever one of his beams made contact the guard went crashing either falling on his allies or being shoved back into them.

Cujo meanwhile growled and grew into his monstrous form and charged at the guards barking furiously which caused some of them to slow down and others to back away. It didn't do them any good when the dog slammed into them though.

Youngblood moved into action as well lifting his pegleg and pointing it at the oncoming swarm of ghostly guards. The wooden foot swelled briefly before a cannonball shot out. A full size cannonball. How could that even fit in there?

Strangeness of having a canon pegleg aside, Youngblood's attack proved effective as it cut a clear line through the guards. Knocking them either back or pushing them to the sides as they scrambled to avoid it.

Johnny himself hung back and used the headlight on his bike to shoot ecto blasts into the swarming ghosts. Meanwhile his bad luck shadow went in and got physical with the guards. Shadow just grabbed any green ghost in reach and threw them into their fellows knocking them over.

It was glorious for a few moments. It seemed to Danny that nothing could touch them and they were unstoppable..

Well that was until the first wave actually reached them.

Shadow was tackled down by about ten guards. He heard it roaring and growling in anger, but the sheer numbers kept it held.

Jonny revved his bike and swerved around the crowd occasionally running over a guard without actually allowing himself to get swarmed.

Danny and Youngblood, however, both lacked a motorcycle or some other vehicle to allow them to evade and strike in the manor Johnny was going about it. On the bright side they both had other weapons to fight with.

Danny unsheathed his ice sword and swung it in an arc around him causing the guards to veer back to avoid getting sliced by the sharp frozen blade. Using their hesitation to his advantage Danny held out his free hand and forced a wave of green energy to shove the guards back and cause them to topple.

Youngblood used a similar tactic in using his sword to force the guards back but instead of using an energy attack he held out his hook and started shooting at the guards. His aim must've been great because it continuously caught the wrists and even the tails of guards and trapped them against either a wall or the ground. At one point he paused his shooting and twisted and held his leg up again and shot another cannon ball into the crowd.

Youngblood's parrot was helping in his own way and would come up to a guard's face and start scratching at the unfortunate specters eyes, temporarily distracting and blinding them.

"Hey Phantom!" Johnny called as he bowled over another guard just as Danny sliced a riot stick in half causing its owner to blink in surprise at his shortened weapon. He couldn't help but grin, it wasn't his fault these idiots brought sticks to a sword fight.

"What is it? 'Cause I'm kinda busy." Danny noted as he blasted the guard backwards only for it to be replaced by three more.

"What happened to sending Ember a signal? We could use some backup!" Johnny complained to him as he swerved his bike to avoid being tackled by a squad of guards. The guards ending up landing in a heap but quickly regrouped and charged the biker ghost again.

"Oh yeah… Forgot about that." Danny muttered. He must've got caught up in the moment. Oh well better late than never he reasoned. He swiped his sword in front of him as he held up his free hand and concentrated.

An orb of blue energy formed in his palm and as he focused on letting the cold out it grew larger. He continued to hold his sword in front of him to keep the guards at bay. Fortunately they seemed a bit weary of the blue orb, obviously none of them wanted to volunteer as a target.

"Sorry guys." Danny smirked, "Not for you, but maybe next time!" He added helpfully. The orb was now the size of a beach ball. Let's hope this works, he thought idly before tossing the glowing blue ball up into the air. The nearby combatants paused momentarily to watch it soar into the air. Included among these were the guards holding Shadow down which allowed the personified bad luck to force its captors off.

The sphere flew high into the sky, a blue dot against the swirling green background. When it was a good twenty meters above the prisons highest point the orb flashed before exploding creating a pretty impressive looking spectacle. Blue tendrils shot across the green sky. At this point the battling ghosts had now all stopped to stare in shock and wonder.

Snowflakes began falling down on the prison creating a thin dusting as more kept falling.

"So do you think Ember noticed that?" Danny asked innocently.

The sound of someone strumming a guitar very loudly, followed by the sounds of walls breaking and crumbling, answered his question. He couldn't help but grin as the guards, now broken out of their trancelike watching of the snow, scrambled trying to figure out if they should go check up on the part of the prison the guitar noise came from or if they should keep dealing with the intruders.

Danny and company didn't give them time to properly decide and instead charged headfirst into the confused crowd, blasting, punching, kicking and slicing their way towards Ember and Kitty on the other side of the prison.

* * *

 _Unknown POV Maximum security level, that same time…_

He had been in this unsavory prison for so long he had almost begun to forget who he was.

Almost.

Many years earlier, or at least the best he could tell, he was feared throughout the Ghost Zone and human world. Ghosts trembled at the mention of his name for fear he might be hiding behind every door and under every rock. Humans told tales of him to keep children and wayward young adults from going out in the dark alone.

Then the warden had come with his troops.

At first he had thought he could fight them off easily. They were all so weak and foolish. Even now he grinned as he recalled bathing in their ectoplasm as his knives slashed them open and quite often to pieces.

But what they lacked in individual strength they made up for in sheer numbers.

The warden had sentenced him to eternity in this prison. Although he knew those were just words. The warden was more intelligent than he seemed at first glance. He had him locked away in this dark and isolated corner of the prison so he would not be able to feed his obsession. He would slowly fade as he lost his hold.

Despite all this time he could feel it within him telling him… nay, begging him to act.

 **SlAuGhTeR tHeM. SlIcE tHeM ApArT.**

Oh how he longed to.

But alas he was locked away in here far from anywhere else in the prison. He had tried to escape a number of times in the early days of his imprisonment. But the warden had his attention focused at that point so he was always stopped before he could get far.

He had made more 'escape attempts' throughout his time but they were more to insure he did not fade than to actually free himself. He had all but given hope on freedom.

But today might prove the perfect opportunity. The sounds of chaos echoed from across the prison all the way to his tiny little corner.

He stood for the first time in years. He quietly walked towards his cell door and pressed his ear against it. He heard the guards talking outside. The voices were muffled but from what he could make out it sounded as though they were lightening the guards in this portion of the prison.

He grinned joyously, the fools! They had forgotten just how dangerous he was! This was more than likely his best opportunity to free himself from this dreaded place.

He held up a gloved hand. He focused his powers, they were weak from being so long without feeding his obsession but they weren't obsolete yet. Besides they were about to start recharging.

An orb of red ecto-energy appeared above his palm, making the gray of his glove look crimson, like blood almost…

The orb flickered and elongated and shifted gaining some substance. A moment later a faintly glowing red, corporeal knife sat lying across his hand. He wasn't sure if he could manage to make another at this time… But this would be enough as long as he made a break for it instead of joining into the fight.

He twirled the knife expertly in his hand as he slipped it into the crack of the door.

Don't fear the reaper little ones he thought idly as he heard a click. With a shove it creaked open and the remaining guard spun on the spot and looked at him in surprise.

 **CuT hIm, CaRvE tHiS oNe LiKe ThE oThErS.**

Fear the Ripper, he thought in delight as he slashed across the ghosts torso and ectoplasm sprayed across the corridor.

* * *

 _Danny POV, Prison Courtyard…_

Danny would like to think the fight was going great.

And from many perspectives people might think so. They had met up with Ember and Kitty, as well as a large number of inmates when they reached the courtyard and the guards were no match for the albeit fewer in number, much stronger ghosts.

"FACE MY RECTANGULAR TERROR!" He heard a voice shout over the fighting, well mostly stronger ghosts anyway, he noted as he punched another guard across the face sending them toppling.

But despite current appearances, Danny couldn't help but notice that a number of ghosts were making a run for it instead of actually fighting the guards.

After blasting another guard away Danny came face to face with a massive mechanical figure with a flaming green mohawk.

"Uh, hi Mr. Big Metal Robot Guy." Danny waved awkwardly gripping his sword a bit tighter. He didn't really feel that scared but this guy was certainly intimidating to look at.

"My name is Skulker!" The newly dubbed Skulker snapped at danny angrily. "I am the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter! How have you not heard of me?" He asked sounding genuinely curious and disappointed.

"I'm kinda new..." Danny admitted ducking to dodge a ghost being tossed over his head.

Skulker seemed to observe Danny, it was a bit hard to tell since the ghost had no pupils. "You have an ice core?" Skulker noted curiously.

"How did you..? Oh right." Danny realized he was holding his sword made of ghost ice in plain sight for the other ghost to see.

"An ice core… Hmm… That's not something you see everyday." the hunter noted, a dangerous grin appearing on his face. "Perhaps you shall be my new prey!"

"OKAY WOAH. Hold on!" Danny made a timeout motion with his hands as best he could while holding his sword. "First off, I am in no way prey! Second of all we kind of have something else happening here." He gestured to the fighting going on around them.

Skulker looked around and gained a conflicted look before sighing. Wait why did a robot ghost have the ability to sigh? That was just weird.

"Very well then, consider yourself lucky today! But I still plan on hunting you at some point in the future." Skulker leaned down into Danny's face and jabbed him in the chest a few times.

"Yeah fine, looking forward to it." Danny rolled his eyes. Like hell he'd let himself get caught by some hunter just because his core type was a bit rare. Wait a second, did hell exist? He was in the Ghost Zone, so if this was the afterlife? Ugh maybe he should check out this Ghostwriter guy Clockwork told him about.

He shook himself. This was a bad time to get distracted by questioning the ways of life and death. Focus on the now!

Skulker had moved away and joined the fighting against the guards and Danny found himself entering the fray again himself.

Danny jumped back into the fray and allowed himself to fall into a pattern.

Punch. Slice. Slice. Kick. Blast. Slice.

After several moments of blasting, hitting and slicing at guards Danny started to get agitated. More of inmates were making a run for it and there were fewer and fewer ghosts fighting back against the guards. He decided to change it up a bit.

He grabbed at the cold feeling in his core and allowed it to flow to the surface and out. He felt his body tingle and with a snapping feeling the cold burst outward freezing the guards all around him.

Now being surrounded by mildly surprised looking ice statues Danny took this time to survey the rest of the battle.

Cujo was knocking guards to the ground and headbutting them into their allies but he could tell the numbers would soon overwhelm the ghostly dog. He couldn't see Ember but he heard her guitar and saw explosions coming from the direction of the sounds. He had no idea where Johnny and Kitty were but Shadow was in the air fighting some of the flying guards.

He saw this just in time for a guard towers light to be aimed directly at the bad luck ghost. The guards fighting it got out of the way and Shadow let out some sort of horrible screaming noise as it evaporated in the light. The guards now without a target went down to join their allies fighting in the courtyard.

Danny noticed Youngblood too but the ghost kid wasn't fighting the guards. Instead he seemed to be having an argument with a green pirate ghost. He moved closer to hear exactly what they were talking about.

"I am too scary!" He heard Youngblood whine as he neared. The pirate he was talking to looked bored and seemed to be picking at his fingernails.

"Brat you are not scary. You don't even deserve to be dressed up in that get up!" The older ghost exclaimed pointing at Youngblood's pirate outfit. Now that he was closer Danny could get a good look at him. He was made up of various shades of green. He had a beard and pirate jacket along with a hat. Instead of legs he too had a ghostly tail like the guards.

"What are you talking about I'm a pirate captain!" Youngblood put his hands on his hips and raised his chin.

His parrot however did not look pleased, "Shouldn't we be more focused o-"

"Quiet you!" Youngblood shushed him.

"Boy take it from me! I am a pirate captain! I AM THE FLYING DUTCHMAN!" The now named Flying Dutchman roared out the ending and his eyes seemed to flame over and lightning appeared to crackle behind him.

"Cool how'd you do that?" Youngblood seemed to completely forget he was mad at the other ghost.

"Well if you were scary you would know." The Flying Dutchman flicked Youngblood on the nose. "Now I'd love to stay and chat but I have more important things to do than get locked up again!" And with that parting statement the ghost flew off away from the prison.

"Why I oughta…" Youngblood trembled in rage. "I'll show him! I'll become the most feared pirate in the Ghost Zone! I'll get a ship and the fiercest ghost pirate crew ever! That'll show him!"

"Well you can do that after!" His parrot shouted at him, "Can't you see that we're in the middle of a fight!"

"Oh come on? What's going to happen because I was distracted for a minute." Youngblood asked rolling his eyes at his parrot.

Karma's a bitch. As soon as the words left his mouth a net wrapped around him and his bird. And they were dragged off.

Danny's eyes widened as he saw the guards had retrieved nets from somewhere and were now using them to catch escaped inmates. One came flying at him personally but he had just enough time to raise his sword and slice it in two.

He saw Skulker flying in the air with wings extended from his back. "You dare try to make the hunter the prey!?" He shouted angrily as he shot a rocket at an incoming net. "Never!" The so called greatest hunter in the Zone declared before turning and flying away from the prison.

"Dipstick!" Danny heard Ember call and turned to see her. "We gotta get out of here. Now. They're starting to regain control." He noted Johnny and Kitty were behind her both looking more than a little worse for the wear.

"You guys go." Danny said and turned towards the now petering out fighting. "I'll cover you."

"..." Ember opened her mouth to say something but closed it. "Fine but if you don't meet up with us in an hour I am so kicking your ass." The trio of ghosts flew off leaving Danny facing down a horde of guards.

"Noted," Danny commented even if she couldn't hear him. He started blasting away at the guards swinging his ice sword to keep them at a safe distance.

But before long the other ghosts remaining in the courtyard had been captured and it was just Danny surrounded by the majority of the prisons guards. At this point he realized he had no chance of getting out of here by himself.

He gulped but stood ready. "Come on! I can beat all of you!" He said trying to sound tough. But he knew he had absolutely no chance of winning against these odds.

Suddenly an ecto blast knocked his sword out of his hand and he turned in the direction it came from. Danny's eyes widened as he was met with a white faced ghost with a white suit and a black fedora. He felt a net wrap around him from behind and he tumbled over.

Walker looked down on him with crossed arms and without compassion. "You and me are going to have a chat punk."

* * *

 _Danny POV, Walker's office, a half hour later…_

Danny found himself handcuffed to a chair in Walker's office. Handcuffed to the chair next to him on the right was Youngblood looking quite put out. In a glowing cage on his other side Cujo and Youngblood's parrot were both being held. Two guards stood behind them looking quite intimidating.

"Starting a prison riot, attacking an officer of the law, bring a dangerous weapon into a prison, bring a non-dangerous weapon into a prison…" Walker paced and trailed on going over each and every rule they had broken during their adventure. Danny and Youngblood were ignoring him for the most part and were both brainstorming how to get out of there.

"...and lastly wearing a pirate hat on Wednesday." Walker stopped pacing and closed his rule book. "Now what do you punks have to say for yourselves?" He leered down at them.

"Why is wearing a pirate hat on Wednesday against the rules?" Youngblood asked sounding genuinely curious.

Walker ignored the question and carried on, "Now I'm not quite sure you two know exactly who I am and what I do." He said intimidatingly.

"Ahem." Youngblood's parrot coughed loudly, trying to get acknowledged.

"I am Walker and this is my prison. Here I act as Judge, Executioner, Jury, Executioner and if at all necessary Executioner." He finished.

"You said executioner three times." Danny noted confused.

"That's my favorite part of the job." Admitted and floated to one of his guards. He held out his hand and took a file from the guard and went back over to his desk holding it in front of him with both hands.

"Now normally the sentence you stacked up would be one thousand years." Walker said. Danny and Youngblood shared a glance and gulped. Youngblood had only been a ghost for about seven years. While Danny had only a month and a half. One thousand years was a very long time.

"But your little riot allowed a good number of powerful inmates to escape so I'm willing to make a deal." He dropped the file on the desk in front of the pair.

"If you manage to catch and bring back the ghosts listed in here." Walker jabbed the folder. "Within six months, I'll consider letting you off with a warning this time."

"Wait, really?" Danny and Youngblood asked simultaneously and shared a looked. Walker never let anyone get away.

"There will be conditions though." Walker said as one of the guards behind Danny and Youngblood unlocked their cuffs so they could look through the folder.

"If you do not capture and return every ghost listed here, your sentence will be doubled. If you make a run for it and don't even bother trying to catch these ghosts I will hunt you to the ends of this realm and the mortal one and triple your sentence." Walker listed.

Danny was flipping through the folder and the list of names within.

 **Desiree-The Wishing Ghost; Class-B**

 **Skulker-Ghost Zone's 'Greatest' Hunter; Class-A**

 **Technus-Master of Technology; Class-B**

The list went on for several more pages each one having the stats of one ghost or another. The last page however caught Danny's eye.

 **The Ripper-Butcher of the Ghost Zone; Class-S**

"NO WAY!" Youngblood shouted out looking over Danny's shoulder. "You had the Ripper locked up in this place?!" he exclaimed.

"Yes we had the Ripper locked up here, he was in the maximum security level." Walker explained.

"The Ripper?" Danny asked cursing his limited knowledge. He definitely had to look into this Ghostwriter guy.

"He was around about a hundred years ago." Youngblood explained looking more than a little nervous. "He slaughtered countless ghosts. Some say it was his obsession, some say it was just a hobby and his obsession was much worse."

"That was his obsession." Walker said, "We had him locked up in maximum security so he couldn't feed it and would eventually fade."

"But wait we didn't touch Maximum Security, we made sure to stay away from it!" Danny explained confused.

"Maybe so but he still used the distraction your riot caused to break out. It's your fault he got out and you're going to put him back in." Walker leaned over the death and glared daggers at Danny.

"So you and your buddies, 'cause this is their fault too, have six months to capture all these ghosts and bring them back. If not, well I already told you what would happen." Walker straightened up but kept glaring.

Danny gulped and looked down at the file picture for the Ripper. A blueish green skinned ghost with blood red eyes and a black handlebar mustache. He had a grey tophat and a grey victorian style coat on.

He almost wanted to get locked up for a thousand years right then and there.

* * *

 **And that's the end of this chapter!**

 **So I hope you all enjoyed that. I sure had fun writing it.**

 **Now as to the Ripper and the Flying Dutchman.**

 **The Ripper is technically an OC. But he's based off of a real life serial killer. I wonder who can figure out who I based him off of?**

 **The Flying Dutchman is a nod to Spongebob Squarepants. I figured that he was a ghost so why shouldn't I include him just for the heck of it. This is not a crossover though so don't expect to be seeing any talking sponges.**

 **But wow this was a long chapter wasn't it?**

 **It might've been out sooner but the Warcraft movie coming out kinda got me back into World of Warcraft for the time being so that slowed me down. All in all for the movie, I thought the visuals were spectacular but as someone who was really into the lore, I had issues with everything that changed. Apart from that though it was an enjoyable experience.**

 **Anyway moving right along it is now review time!**

 **TheDisneyFan365: Glad you liked the chapter and Clockwork did explain what i felt Danny should know at this time. I decided to not have him mention the whole potential end of the universe thing.**

 **BaconLover1800: Getting a bit ahead of ourselves aren't we? You're going to have to wait to find out. But Vortex will be mentioned next chapter but we won't actually see him.**

 **GirlFish: Yes the GiW will show up but you'll have to wait and see how that goes. I will say that this story is not rated M so there will be no extreme torture (if any) of Danny.**

 **OptimisticEmotion: That was the first one hopefully you liked it…**

 **Kimera20 : Thanks and I'm glad you think Anomalus is interesting as for his powers we'll have to wait until the next time we see him to find out but I will say he's no pushover. No he and his seers and the rest of his people live in the Ghost Zone they're just well removed like Far Frozen. Maybe further.**

 **Icypoolthewarrio: Yes thank you again! He'll meet her probably within the next five to six chapters, haven't quite decided yet.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder : Yes they're going on an adventure! Too bad they don't have a burglar.**

 **Hoytii: Thanks for the core ideas, I'll definitely use some of them.**

 **Mystic Mira 8: Yeah Ghostwriter will be introduced officially next chapter as Danny is going to have to do a bit of research with what he's gotten himself into.**

 **Well that's all folks see ya next time!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	13. Let's go to the Library!

**Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages to Gone Ghost chapter thirteen!**

 **Yes this story has come quite a ways and is becoming more popular as well.**

 **This pleases me greatly.**

 **Also in my research of Ghost Writer's character I discovered that his name is spaced instead of just one word. So that's an interesting piece of information I'm going to hold onto.**

 **Anywho let's go over last chapter shall we?**

 **-Danny and company led a prison break!**

 **-A creepy S-class called the Ripper broke out during the chaos!**

 **-Danny, Cujo and Youngblood (and Youngblood's parrot)**

 **-Walker made a deal about letting them off if they caught some of the stronger ghosts who broke out**

 **And that's about it for last time!**

 **And now it's time for the conclusion!**

 **Oh I'm just kidding, it's just another chapter we're nowhere near done.**

* * *

 _Danny's POV, flying through the Ghost Zone, about an hour later…_

"But why do we have to go to this library." Youngblood whined at him as the pair flew through the zone with their animal companions.

Danny rolled his eyes at the other ghost, "Because we need to find some sort of information on the ghosts we're going to have to catch."

"How come we have to catch them?" Youngblood complained, "Why doesn't Walker catch his own escapees?"

"Well, if he did them we would be locked up for the next thousand years. But if you want you can go back and let him lock you up instead." Danny explained to him.

"Ya know what I think I might want to go to the library." Youngblood decided, not wanting to spend one thousand years in Walker's jail.

"Good choice."

With Youngblood's complaints dealt with, the two continued through the Ghost Zone towards where the Ghost Writer's library was supposed to be.

They had been literally been thrown out of the prison with Walker watching coldly telling them that the six months to catch the ghosts starts now.

Having been kicked out Danny made the decision to go looking for the Ghost Writer that Clockwork had told him about. He had the file with all the ghosts Walker expected him to bring back and he needed to find out what he could about their strengths and weaknesses. This normally revolved around what core type a ghost was. Like how a ghost with a Ice Core didn't handle hot temperatures very well.

This led to him telling Youngblood to follow him and they took off in the approximate directions of the Ghost Writer's lair or library.

After another half hour of flying through the swirling depths of the Zone, past doors and floating rocks, a building came into sight. It honestly looked like a library. It was white with pillars near the door and two lion statues perched in front of a set of stairs.

"If I had to guess I'd say this is it." Danny said out loud for Youngblood to hear.

"How can you tell?" Youngblood asked looking and sounding genuinely curious on the matter.

"Well we're looking for a library and this looks like one. Also this is the first building we've seen since Walker's prison." Danny explained his reasoning as they flew in closer and landed on the front steps.

"Fair enough." Youngblood agreed landing beside him with Cujo soon following.

Danny couldn't help but glance at the lion statues. They could be some sort of defense mechanism that would come to life and attack them for intruding. Now this wouldn't be a concern for most people but this was the Ghost Zone and they were dealing with some old ghost's lair.

But thankfully the lions stayed still on their perches stairing with vigilance into the swirling green of the Zone.

As they neared the door Danny turned and looked down at Cujo. The green puppy had been sniffing at every other stair curiously. "Stay out here Cujo, I'm not sure what this guy is like." He told the dog and hoped he would understand.

Cujo seemed to get the message and sat down giving Danny puppy dog eyes. But he wasn't going to let Cujo, who could be unpredictable at times, into a library with a very old ghost who they knew nothing about whatsoever.

With Cujo sitting on the stairs behind them Danny and Youngblood made their way up the stairs to the door. They shared a glance and Danny raised his gloved hand to knock on the door.

* * *

 _Vlad's POV, in his study at his mansion, about that same time…_

Vladimir Master was no fool, unlike a certain former friend of his.

When he had called Maddie to invite her to the college reunion he had planned specifically so that he might win her heart away from that bumbling oaf he once called friend, he had not expected her to tell him they couldn't come because their son had died.

This event, while tragic, had given him a plethora of options on which to win her away from Jack by finding a way to convince her that it was all that fools fault, it probably was anyway so it shouldn't have been too hard to do.

He had already been considering a number of them until he thought deeper into exactly how she said her son had died.

There had been an accident with their ghost portal. An accident in which a human had been bombarded with ectoplasmic energy.

Now while Maddie has said her son was dead, that could be an assumption. Perhaps her son had fallen into the depths of the Ghost Zone and was currently confused as to what had happened and scared of his new powers, not sure what to think.

Well that had been Vlad for the first month after his powers truly began to develop but who knew with this potentially new halfa, perhaps he had delighted in his newfound abilities.

But in the meanwhile his parents believed him to have been vaporized by the portal. Unfortunately Vlad had no way as of yet to confirm or deny this assumption. Why would her child not try to return home after falling into the Zone? It was far from a hospitable place.

But whatever the case, assuming Madeline's son was indeed a halfa as Vlad believed him to be, he could find this child and teach him, become a mentor to him unlike his bumbling oaf of a father could ever be. Finally someone who was just like him! Being Maddie's son was an added bonus!

Of course that was what Vlad was hoping for. The other possibility was that the ectoplasmic energy had indeed been too much for Madeline's son and killed him on the spot. If that were true then there was no new halfa as Vlad desperately hoped.

None the less, Vlad prefered to look on the positives of a situation and act on them while make contingency plans for the less favorable possibilities. If the boy was indeed dead, and not a halfa, then he could still be a comforting shoulder for dear Maddie and shift her blame away from herself and on that idiot Jack as it rightfully should be.

But if the boy was indeed a halfa as Vlad hoped then he could find not only an apprentice but win Maddie's love by returning her son alive and well, or least somewhat alive anyway.

Of course he needed to find said son first which led him to calling in one of his most trusted aids on the subject. The Ghost Zone's greatest hunter, Skulker.

Skulker had not yet failed on delivering whatever it was he asked for. Admittedly they had not started out on the best of terms as the hunter had attempted to hunt Vlad because of his halfa status. That began to change when Vlad offered to help outfit him with technology in order to acquire other rare hunts.

He had called Skulker a day after his call with Madeline and had been very unhappy to have not been answered immediately.

So when he felt the tingling sensation that he got when full ghosts were near he allowed himself a small smile. Of course he still had to find out exactly why Skulker was so late.

"You're late Skulker." Vlad said calmly as the hunter phased into his office with the wings of his jet pack extended. The hunter quickly landed and the wings retracted into his back.

"Yeah, sorry about that Plasmius, Walker locked me up for hunting without a license again. There was a riot and I managed to escape in the chaos I just received your message." Skulker explained.

"Really Skulker? Arrested for not having a hunting license? Again? I would have thought the 'Ghost Zone's greatest hunter' would have one by now." Vlad said condescendingly. It was nice to make sure the underlings knew their place.

Skulker growled but said nothing else on the matter. "What is it you wanted me for Plasmius. I just got out of Walker's prison and would like to enjoy my freedom." He didn't need to say that said freedom included taking away the freedom of ghosts and even some non-ghosts he deemed fit to hunt.

"Yes quite, I am looking for a certain ah, ghost." Vlad told the hunter figuring mentioning that this ghost was a halfa could cause Skulker to go rogue and attempt to catch the hybrid for himself.

"There are a lot of ghosts Plasmius. Be specific." Skulker crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Vlad in irritation. He allowed it, he should have been more specific. But alas he was only human, or at least half anyway which was more than could be said for the ghost in front of him.

"That is because I do not have many specifics on this ghost." No need to let Skulker know his blunder, but to be fair he wasn't quite lying. "All I know is that it is a young ghost, possibly one of the newest in the Zone."

"The Ghost Zone is a big place." Skulker said but for some reason Vlad thought he heard a hint of knowing in his voice, like he already knew something on the matter, "Any idea where to start looking?"

"Oh I'd say about two hundred mile radius around your island. Give or take." Vlad said having found the Fenton's portal after his conversation with Maddie. It was significantly near Skulker's island lair.

"Is that so…" Skulker trailed off in thought. Vlad raised an eyebrow, the ghost definitely knew something about a new ghost already.

"And just what will I receive in return for this venture?" Skulker asked having finished his thoughts on the matter.

"You can pick any three upgrades for your suit and I will expend what resources it will take to make those upgrades happen." Vlad told him. It was a bit costly but if he got an apprentice out of this venture it would be very much worth it.

"Well then." Skulker grinned victoriously. "I believe I may have already found your ghost."

* * *

 _Danny POV, Ghost Writer's lair, a few minutes later…_

Ghost Writer was an interesting character to say the least.

Upon knocking they had waited for a minute or so before hearing a voice gradually growing louder on the other side of the door. From what Danny could tell it seemed to be complaining.

The ghost who answered the door was an interesting looking character. He had pale bluish gray skin and had green eyes and glasses. He had black hair and a small beard on his chin. He was wearing a scarf and blue trench coat. All in all he had quite the strange appearance.

The ghost narrowed his eyes at them. "What do you want? I'm busy."

Danny got over his distraction by the other ghost's appearance. "Uh hi we were wondering if we could check out some books?"

The Ghost Writer, for that's who Danny assumed this was, raised an eyebrow before sighing. "Fine, but I hope you know what you're looking for because like I said, I'm busy."

"Just some books on core types." Danny said smiling slightly.

"And ghost types!" Youngblood added in causing Danny to glance at him in surprise. Youngblood only shrugged in return. What the heck was the difference between ghost types and core types anyway? Maybe there was none and Youngblood was just trying to be helpful.

"Fine." Ghost Writer shrugged and turned around and walked back into his library. Danny and Youngblood shared one last glance and quickly followed him into the building.

There wasn't much to the main entry hall. But once they got threw a pair of doors on the opposite side of the main entrance, they were greeted with rows upon rows of bookshelves.

After walking through the shelves for a little while Ghost Writer took a sharp turn into one of the corridors between shelves and stopped to turn and face them.

"Books about cores' anatomies and core types are on the left." He gestured with his hand to his left. "Books about ghost biology, anatomy, forms and types are on the right." He gestured to the shelf on the right.

"Take whatever books you want but be sure to return them when you're done with them. If you don't return them, I will know." He glared at them before walking off to go back to whatever he was doing before.

"Interesting guy." Danny noted, "Wonder what has his pages ruffled." Youngblood shot him a glare of his own.

"I stand by that." He defended his joke before turning to the shelf containing information on core types. There were books on each and every type of core, multiple books per core type at that. He took out the folder Walker had given them and flipped through it identifying what core type each ghost listed inside was.

He began piling books for each core type listed. Technology for Skulker and Technus, Magic for Desiree, etcetera.

"Hey Phantom, look at this." Youngblood called to him from where he was a bit further down the shelves. He was going through the right side of the corridor with the books on ghosts.

"What is it?" Danny asked as he came over and look at the book Youngblood was holding.

"It's about creating a haunt in the human world." Youngblood flipped to a page displaying an old looking house that was in a state of disrepair. All in all, it was yet another stereotypical haunted house.

"Huh, well that's actually pretty cool, but don't we have other things to be doing right now?" Danny questioned turning back to his pile before the words on the side of a book caught his eye.

It was title _Of Halfas and Life and Death._

Danny narrowed his eyes at the title and pulled the book off the shelf. The cover was just blank so he opened it to the first chapter. It was title What is a Halfa? And he began to read

 _The question that must be asked before we can enter in the philosophical discussions is exactly what is a halfa. The truth is this question is difficult to answer. A halfa is not quite a ghost, nor is it quite a human but instead something that walks the line of Life and Death. They are beings who can go above and beyond both the living and the dead. They wield power unlike any human could have and yet they have the capability of growing in ways the dead simply can't._

 _The birth of a halfa is a coincidence that has astronomical chances of actually occurring. At the writing of this book only four of these coincidences have happened and of those four only two have resulted in the creation of a halfa, and as of this time only one halfa yet remains as such. The event that must take place for it to knowingly work is for a human caught in the formation of a Ghost Portal._

Danny froze as he read the last sentence. While his memories were still spotty at best he still remembered what exactly had caused the accident that resulted in his death. His parents ghost portal. He had been inside it when it turned on and that was what had killed him. Could he be one of these halfas the book mentioned? He kept reading.

 _As mentioned before a halfa is neither ghost nor human. Although they do display traits of both. They still keep their human body but they gain what can only be called a ghost form. They are able to switch between the two forms in the blink of an eye. With training they can even use their ghostly abilities in human form._

Finishing the paragraph Danny felt something drop inside him. Perhaps some sort of feeling of hope he had some humanity left in him. A week ago he wouldn't have cared much about that but having remembered parts of his human life he had begun to miss the life he used to have. But it seemed fate had other plans for him. Maybe he could stay in the Zone until everyone he knew was dead and then he wouldn't have to miss them.

But he wanted to see them again…

He closed the book and put it in the stack with the others as he started going through the shelf again trying to ignore the feelings welling up in his core. He could go back and see them whenever he wanted to. He just… Couldn't interact with them or they would shoot at him. Well most of them would anyway, Sam, Tucker, his mom and dad.

But what about Jazz he thought as he picked up the pile and told Youngblood to follow him.

* * *

 _Danny's POV, in his lair, October 16, 2004…_

Danny sighed and closed the book he was reading about shadow cores. Apparently they were a very rare type of core and could only be found in a few ghosts and as it turned out Johnny's shadow included. Unfortunately he had two on the list Walker gave him, called Spectra and Bertrand. Partners apparently though it seemed Bertrand was subservient to Spectra or something like that.

Also as it turned out from asking around and even just reading the file on some of these ghosts, he would need to be returning the human world sooner rather than later. Spectra, just as an example, was a ghost who needed to feed off human emotions to remain strong. Apparently her obsession centered around misery or something like that. Her file was a bit vague on the matter but for some reason it only worked on humans. Whatever difference there was between the emotions of the living and the dead seemed to be enough for her feeding not to work.

He was lying on his bed in his lair. It was nice to relax at home after being gone for awhile. Despite his somewhat reawakened memories he still considered this place home. In fact when he returned a bookshelf had been waiting for him in beneath the outcropping stairs where his bed was. This place really did reflect his needs and wants.

Cujo was curled up on the bed next to him, twitching occasionally. Danny still wasn't sure if the dog could actually sleep, as he couldn't, but he sure seemed to have dreams. The thought of what the ghostly puppy was dreaming about amused him somewhat.

Danny sighed and decided to go fly around for a bit. As interesting as reading about cores and ghosts was he needed to get out once and awhile. Admittedly he had been cooped up in here since Ember had kicked his butt as promised not long after he and Youngblood had left Ghost Writer's library.

After explaining the situation she had become even more ticked and last he heard she was going to blow off steam before they had to start hunting for other ghosts. She had also brought up the good point of how exactly they were going to catch these ghosts when they found them. They certainly wouldn't come nicely when they asked.

He walked across his lair, which he now knew appeared the way it did because of his interest in space while he was alive, and picked up his sword and cloak from where he left them on his desk. He tossed the cloak on and attached his sword to his belt before slipping on his boots and opening the door into the Zone.

He flew through the Zone with no specific destination. He just wanted to fly and to think. He soared past the doors of other ghosts and flew by islands of barren rock through the swirling green.

So deep in thought he almost collided with someone.

He stopped himself just in time and shook himself. "Sorry about that, I was kinda lost in thought."

The ghost in front of him looked a bit vampiric with v-shaped black hair and a small half goatee. He was blue skinned and had a white costume highlighted with black and his cape had a red inside. His eyes were a solid glowing red with no pupils. When he grinned his smile revealed fangs. "Oh that's quite alright dear boy, it is quite easy for one to get lost in their own thoughts."

"Uhh yeah. So I'll just be on my way." This guy was giving off a bit of a creepy vibe. Honestly he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Wait was his chest rising and falling? Was this ghost breathing?

"Oh nonsense my dear boy, we were just getting acquainted." The vampire cosplaying ghost insisted.

"Sure, well I'm Phantom and I've never seen you around before." Danny said cautiously, he seriously did not like the vibe this guy was giving him.

"Ah yes, I am Vlad Plasmius." The ghost saiding giving grin that seemed to be all teeth and no feeling. "I don't normally come around here, busy maintaining my enterprises and all that."

"Enterprises? As in companies?" Danny asked curiously. How did a ghost run businesses, unless there were some in the Zone he didn't know about yet.

"Yes, for while I'm known here in the Ghost Zone as Plasmius, I also have a human identity." Vlad smirked as though he knew something Danny didn't. He was starting to think he didn't like this guy.

"A human identity, how'd you manage that? I mean I pulled it off for little while, but I had to wear either a hat or a hoodie and sunglasses. Also you look a bit less human than I do." Danny said thoughtfully.

Plasmius, looked a bit put off by this statement, "My human identity fits in better than any ghost could dream of fitting in, in the human world." He claimed.

"How do you do that, I mean you look like a vampire. Wait a second…" Danny trailed off as he remembered the book he had picked up at Ghost Writer's library that had been more for recreational purposes.

"You're a halfa." Danny decided looking at Plasmius. "I remember, there was a book at Ghost Writer's library that talked about ghosts like you. It had to do with a Ghost Portal." Danny shook his head pushing away unwanted memories of his death. "Guess some of us are just lucky." He added bitterly.

Vlad's eyes widened at his final sentence before smiling in his I'm-not-a-shark-but-I-smile-like-one way. "My haven't you done your research? Yes I am indeed a halfa. As to my human identity, well there's no reason to mention that now is there?" He asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, sure." Danny agreed still not really liking the guy. He didn't seem like someone he wanted to hang around with.

"Well it was nice meeting you Daniel but I have other things to be doing now." Plasmius smirked one last time before he dramatically brought his cape around him like a vampire did when turning in a bat and he sort of vanished into it. Was that teleportation? Okay no lie that was pretty cool.

"Yeah nice meeting you too. In a creepy sort of way." Danny muttered the last part not really caring if the halfa was gone and unable to hear it. He started to fly again this time towards Ember's lair to see if she had calmed down from her anger/panic induced state.

It was only when he was about five minutes away that he realized he had never told actually Plasmius his given name.

* * *

 _Vlad's POV, the lab beneath his mansion, just after teleportation…_

This was indeed an interesting turn of events, Vlad thought as he transformed into his human half and started walking towards the door of his lab closing the portal door behind him.

Madeline's son was not a halfa as he had first hoped and was indeed dead, but his backup plan had not included the possibility that her son could have still become a ghost even if he was not a halfa such as himself. This could cause his plans to change.

He could still bend Maddie to his way of thinking even if he couldn't return her living breathing son. He was back to the plan of convincing her the incident that took her son was still Jack's fault. But her son was a ghost and still on the playing field so to speak.

As he walked up the stairs he considered what he could do with this information, perhaps he could still train Daniel to be his apprentice, but the boy had seemed a bit distrusting of him and being a ghost it would be difficult if not impossible to change his way of thinking. While humans could if not easily then with little difficulty change their own personalities and feelings it was far more difficult for a ghost to do.

Vlad shrugged physically. It would be little matter in the end if he could help it after all life was just a more grandiose game of chess, and a good player could manipulate the pieces to do what he wanted even if they weren't his.

So as he entered his study and sat behind his desk, Vlad Masters pulled out his notebook and did what he did best.

Plot dastardly plans.

* * *

 **And there we go. A bit shorter than last chapter, I know, but I covered what I wanted to this time and I didn't have a real enemy for him to fight, I know Vlad wouldn't immediately jump to anger that Danny wasn't the way he wanted him and instead would plan things differently.**

 **But anyway, next chapter we're going back to the human world with Danny. Also maybe some of his ghostly friends but still working on that bit of it.**

 **Also I'm quite sorry this came out later than I wanted it to. I've just been distracted. With World of Warcraft. Yeah I know. It's just so addicting and I've managed to make my paladin so fucking badass and…**

 **I'm getting of topic aren't I?**

 **Anyway let's go over reviews from last time!**

 **ImpudentMessenger: You're welcome I guess? It's been a **_**really**_ **long time since I've seen that movie. I think something about not feeding after midnight? Which is was two hours ago at the posting of this chapter. Sorry. But here's the next update!**

 **Wolf King 0811: I might be able to work with that OC, not sure when I'll include him though but still thanks. He sounds quite interesting.**

 **Mystic Myra 8: Yes the ripper is written to be the generally badass scary villain, he's going to be the main antagonist for this arc, I think. His threat will be looming over Danny until he deals with him.**

 **RoseAnna1177: Welcome and I'm glad you think it's awesome!**

 **Fantasyconnect: You would correct in your assumption. Jack the Ripper has indeed come to Amity Park. You see the good part about a serial killer that there is little to no information about who he actually was apart from his deeds is that I can write his character however I please.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: But does he use them for unlike a certain flock of birds who only show up at the end and are COMPLETELY FUCKING USELESS THE REST OF THE TIME? is the real question. Sorry got a bit worked up there. And to be fair I can think of burglar who, while he can't go intangible, can go invisible.**

 **Kieve Grove : Phantom will indeed be returning to Amity Park. Next chapter in fact! So be ready for that. Also I am quite glad you find my story so entertaining, I do try.**

 **And that's all for this time folks!**

 **Next time we return to Amityville.**

 **I mean Amity Park.**

 **Computer: Boo. You suck.**

 **I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE THIS STORY YOU'RE NOT IN IT!**

 **Anyway see ya next time!**

 **~FriTIk**

 **R &R**


	14. A (Haunted) House of My Own

**Hello, hello!**

 **Welcome to the new and improved chapter fourteen of Gone Ghost.**

 **I hope you stick around, the last chapter you see, it was a bit shorter than I liked.**

 **But I'm sure you enjoyed it and that you'll like this one too.**

 **Last chapter did cover:**

 **-Danny and Youngblood going to Ghost Writer's**

 **-Vlad's evil plotting**

 **-Danny preparing to hunt ghosts**

 **-More of Vlad's plotting**

 **Also congratulations to whoever figured out what I was parodying up there.**

 **Poor lost souls ;)**

 **Anywho, I was serious about it being shorter than I liked. I just didn't have anyone other than Vlad for Danny to actually go up against and I figured it would be out of character if Vlad got pissed just because his plan didn't go quite the way he wanted.**

 **This chapter we're going back to Amity Park.**

 **Not Amityville as someone who is NOT in this story was happy to remind me about.**

 **Asshole.**

 **Okay then, let's get this chapter started shall we?**

* * *

 _Danny's POV, Fenton Ghost Portal, October 18, 2004…_

Danny poked his head through the portal and glanced around the lab. It looked like the coast was clear, maybe it was night time or maybe they were out dealing with some other ghosts. Either way Danny did not want a confrontation with his parents right now.

Or later.

Or anytime really.

Honestly he just wanted to avoid the people who had raised him when he was alive. Why? Well because he wasn't sure what to say to them for one thing. Also they would probably shoot at him because he was a ghost. He hadn't exactly made a good impression the last time he had seen the two of them.

He called back into the portal, "The coast is clear." And flew through the rest of the way. He was dressed in his normal attire of black sweats with a white stripe, a black t-shirt with his logo in the middle, black and white boots and his cloak. His sword hung at his side attached to a white belt.

The lab didn't look much different than the last time he had seen it. Sure some stuff was in different spots but other than that it looked pretty much the same as it had when he had come through with Ember. He couldn't really remember the part when he went back through.

Hopefully this time didn't end the same way.

"Are you sure?' He heard Youngblood ask beside him as he came through the portal. Danny raised an eyebrow at the younger ghosts appearance. He still had his pegleg and hook as well as his pirate hat, but now he was wrapped in a ninja outfit. His parrot still sat loyally on his soldier.

Having noticed Danny's look Youngblood crossed his arms, "What I'm a ninja pirate! With all the abilities of a pirate and a ninja!" He declared putting his fists on his waist in a heroic pose.

"What other powers are there besides dorkiness?" Ember commented as she came through the portal on Danny's other side in her normal rocker, outfit.

Youngblood had been willing to come as soon as Danny brought up the idea, although Ember had taken a bit more convincing. While Youngblood hadn't been to the human world since he died, Ember had been through recently and did not have pleasant memories of her time in the living realm. Someone trying to end you will do that.

"We can argue the abilities of a pirate ninja-" Danny started.

"Ninja pirate!" Youngblood cut in correcting him.

"Later, but for now let's get out of here." Danny finished ignoring Youngblood's interruption.

"Where are we heading anyway." Ember asked floating into the air.

"..." Danny opened his mouth to respond but paused as he heard a quiet beeping. He turned toward the sound and was faced with a table covered in parts, tools and inventions. He walked over to the table and looked over it trying to identify where the noise was coming from and found a medium sized metal box.

Upon closer inspection he realized that it was a radar of some sort and it had about seven blips on it, three of them were right near the center while the rest were much farther away. He stared at in in confusion for a moment before an idea occurred.

This lab was where his parents… Where the ghost hunters did made there ghost hunting technology, this was probably some sort of ghost radar that allowed them to track the ghosts in Amity Park. Including them.

Danny narrowed his eyes and raised his hand making a fist. Without a second thought he brought his hand down on the radar. Hard. "That takes care of that." He noted out loud.

"What was that?" Ember asked in confusion as Danny shaked his hand to get the broken bits of machine off.

"Some sort of radar." Danny explained, "I'm pretty sure it was tracking us and every other ghost around. It should keep the hunters off of our backs."

"Did you at least get a look at where the other ghosts were? At least one of them has got to be one we're looking for." Ember asked.

Danny stared for a moment before slapping himself in the face. Why didn't he think of that?

"Dipstick, you really need to think before you do." Ember crossed her arms and looked at him patronizingly.

Danny ignored her comment and tried to remember if there were any abandoned houses in Amity Park. His memories were fractured and foggy but after focusing for a minute he had an image of a rickety old house on a quiet street.

"Come on." He told the other ghosts, "I know a place we can go." He turned invisible and jumped into the air and flew intangibly out of the lab and house quickly followed by his friends. None of them having noticed the camera in the top right corner of the lab.

"How do you know a place?' Ember asked sounding really curious. "Did you find it last time we were here when you went off on your own?"

"Not exactly…" Danny trailed off not really wanting to explain. "I'll tell you later." He brushed her off.

With that the trio and a parrot flew in silence towards their destination.

* * *

 _Maddie POV, Fenton Works, the next morning…_

Maddie Fenton's morning schedule had changed somewhat over the past two months.

Once upon a time she would get up about the same time her kids did and see them off to school before going down to the lab and working with her husband on their various inventions.

Nowadays she got up at five AM every morning. Long before her daughter woke up. She would head down to the lab and check the radar for new ghosts that they needed to hunt down and deal with. Recently, the mayor had given them special permissions to deal with the ghost problem.

So when she came down to the lab when she woke up she was very surprised and quite worried to find that the radar had been smashed.

Admittedly her first assumption had been her husband had accidentally broken it but she quickly discounted this idea as she had gone to bed after her husband and had arrived in the lab this morning before he had. Which left an unpleasant and highly likely possibility.

She quickly moved to the computer and brought up the video file from the previous night. Nothing caught her immediate attention so she sped up the playback speed and watched closely for anything that caught her attention.

She didn't have to wait long. Around eleven thirty the previous night a head stuck out of the portal and looked around. Maddie felt her breath leave her.

Phantom.

She hadn't expected to see him back this soon after whatever happened to him last time. From what Sam and Tucker reported he had gone through some sort of power increase that he seemed to have barely any control over. Of course that didn't stop him from attacking the two of them but he had made a quick retreat before doing any serious damage.

She had actually been hoping she wouldn't see Phantom again so soon as well. His power increase put him just above the level their weapons could currently deal with properly. Not to mention they still had no way to detain him.

As Maddie watched the screen her eyes narrowed as she recognized one of the ghosts Phantom was with last time, Ember. She also noticed the two seemed to refer occasionally to an empty space near them, perhaps another ghost was in the mix and was just invisible? Impossible to know at the moment.

She watched as Phantom smashed the radar and seemed to get into some sort of brief exchange with Ember before shrugging and the ghosts vanishing without a trace.

She sat back in the chair and rubbed her temples. Great, not only was the strongest ghost they had ever faced back in Amity Park but he had smashed their radar so they wouldn't be able to track him or any of the other ghosts in town.

Maddie heard Jack come down the stairs and his voice carried, "How many do we have this morning honey?'

"It's complicated." She told him as he entered the lab.

"What do you mean it's complica- SIZZLIN' SPOOKS WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FENTON RADAR?!" He cried out in alarm seeing the Fenton Radar in pieces on the table.

"Like I said it's complicated but we have a problem still." She said as she stood up and took the smaller ranged radar off the wall as well as a Fenton Bazooka and A Fenton Rod.

She turn back to her husband putting on a serious face. "Phantom is back."

* * *

 _Danny's POV, 65 Elms Street, that same time…_

"I thought you didn't like cliche haunted houses." Ember noted as they floated down the entry hall of the old abandoned house.

"I didn't say I didn't like them, I've just noted in the past that there seem to be a lot of them." Danny defend himself.

The house Danny had brought the trio to was old and run down. It had a victorian style appearance and all the windows were either boarded up or broken. The roof shingles were falling off and there were cracks in the walls. This place definitely looked like a haunted house and for the time being it would be just that.

They arrived in what looked like some sort of sitting room. The pieces of furniture that remained in the room were covered in white sheets. There were lighter rectangular patches on the walls where paintings had once been placed. A few doors led to other rooms and halls.

Danny walked up to one of the doors and stuck his head in intangibly letting him see inside. It was nothing but a near empty closet with a few hangars and mothballs on the floor. A spiderweb hung in the top right corner but he didn't see its owner.

Well this should work, he thought to himself. "Youngblood you brought that book about hauntings right?'

"What? Oh yeah here it is." Youngblood pulled the book out and handed it to Phantom who flipped to a page he had folded while looking at it before coming to the Human World.

The page he had marked was about how to link a ghost's lair to a place in the real world. It had some sort of incantation that somehow helped manipulate the speaker's ectoplasm to connect to their lair in the Ghost Zone.

He cleared his throat before speaking the lines three times as the book instructed, "Keh pume cule tyre, keh tyre ja pume. Keh pume cult tyre, keh tyre ja pume. Keh pume cule tyre, keh tyre ja pume."

While he was reading he held out his hand towards the closet door and pushed his energy out without letting it blast anything. The energy surrounded the door and seemed to merge with it. The door shimmered like a mirage or something. When it came back into focus it was a pitch black color with a silver door knob. Basically it looked just like the entrance to his lair in the Zone.

Danny blinked in surprise not completely expecting it to work. He closed the book and handed it back to Youngblood. Tentatively he took a step forward and reached for the doorknob. Upon grabbing it he opened the door and saw what was on the other side.

It was indeed his lair. Exactly as he had left it. He seemed to be on the side opposite the main door that led into the Zone itself.

"What do you know! It worked!" He said cheerfully.

"What do you mean 'It worked'?" Ember asked raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well I didn't know if it would actually work." He defended himself, "I've never tried to connect my lair to the human world."

"I haven't either!" Youngblood piped in.

"Anyway now we have an easy way out of and into the human world." Danny declared stepping into his lair. "At least now we don't have to deal with my p- the ghost hunters, when we come through."

He saw Ember raise an eyebrow at his hasty correction but she didn't say anything and simply followed him into his lair with Youngblood following.

A barking quickly caught his attention as Cujo ran over from where he had been chewing on a piece of rope Danny had found him a little while back. He bent down and patted his dog on the head.

"So now what?" Ember asked him.

"Now? We start hunting." He said seriously.

* * *

 **What? No. This definitely isn't late at all!**

…

 **Okay maybe it did take me longer than expected for such a short and uneventful really chapter but honestly I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. I'm sorry.**

 **I promise the next one will be longer and will have some action in it. I just wasn't sure what to do with this one.**

 **I suppose I could've made it longer but I've kept you guys waiting long enough with no update so here it is.**

 **I promise the next one will be better.**

 **Anyway review time!**

 **BaconLover1800: It was rather interesting wasn't it?**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: Yeah I can't think of a burglar who can do that stuff off the top of my head so Danny wins I suppose. For now anyway. Also It wasn't Courage's Computer, that was actually an OC from my other story who is just a really sarcastic and annoying son of calculator.**

 **Kimera20 : I am quite glad you think so!**

 **RoseAnna1177 : Really you liked Danny and Vlads' interaction? I actually felt it wasn't my best. Or maybe I'm being too hard on myself. Anyway here is the next chapter!**

 **That's it for reviews and once again I'm sorry for the lateness and shortness of this chapter but I just found myself kind of forcing it out. It didn't really flow if you understand me. There are parts I want to get to but I need to include other bits that I just don't enjoy writing. A similar issue happened with my DBZ story.**

 **So until next time readers, see ya.**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	15. Amity Park, A Nice Place to Live!

**HEY LOOK IT'S AN UPDATE WHO HERE IS EXCITED FOR THAT!?**

 **Now that is out of the way let's briefly go over what happened last time.**

 **-Danny went back to Amity Park**

 **-Maddie found out that Phantom has returned to Amity**

 **-Danny connected his lair to a creepy house at 65 Elms Street**

 **That's about it for last chapter.**

 **Anyway this time is picking up about a week later.**

 **Also am I the only one who thinks there should be meanwhile in Amity Park, like the meanwhile in Russia jokes? I just feel like that would work and also be quite hilarious to a degree.**

 **Anywho, shall we begin the chapter?**

* * *

 _Amity Park…_

It was just another average day in Amity Park. The commuters were off to work, the kids were on their way to school. The birds were singing and the sun was shining down pleasantly.

"GHOST!"

Oh yeah and the town was under attack from ghosts. Just another average day.

The spectre, spook, ghoul or ghost, whatever you want to call it, causing havoc today was none other than Technus. Using his incredible powers over all things cool, hip and technological he had created himself a very buff looking black and green robot body. He was now using said body to cause havoc on a random street delightedly blasting at cars and passersby.

"YES. FLEE HUMANS! USING MY POWERS I SHALL TAKE YOUR TECHNOLOGY AND USE IT TO CONQUER YOUR WORLD AS IT"S (hip and very cool) RULER!" The technology ghost declared, shouting out his plans as usual.

He sauntered down the middle of the street causing cars to swerve in an attempt to avoid hitting him. He would occasionally smash nearby cars or shoot blasts at them or the people on the sidewalk. The numbers of people on the sidewalks were depleting though due to the general fear he had generated.

"Yes! Flee pathetic humans! My power is almight- GAH!" Technus was cut off as a green ectoblast hit his robotic form from behind, knocking him over.

The ghost inside of a robotic shell pushed himself up. "WHO DARES TO ATTACK ME, TECHNUS!"

"Well it's not that hard to attack you you're kinda just standing there in the middle of the street." A condescending voice answered him.

Technus turned and faced the speaker. It was another ghost who wore a hooded cloak that was hiding the top half of his face save for a pair of dangerously glowing green eyes.

"Phantom? So the rumors are true you did claim this town as your haunt!" Technus got over his temporary surprise.

"Okay two things, one it's not the whole town it's just one house on… You know what you don't need to know that." Phantom decided before continuing, "And two, how the heck did you find that out so fast?"

"Eh there isn't much to do when not terrorizing humans." Technus shrugged.

"Point taken, and while I don't particularly have a problem with giving them a good scare, I don't approve of you hurting them." Phantom announced his eyes blazing brighter than before.

"You think you can challenge I, Technus?! You are one of the youngest ghosts dead! I shall defeat you and take this town for my own!" He claimed boldly.

"Bring it on metal head." Danny shot back at him and unsheathed his ice sword.

Technus raised his hands and blasted at Danny with a pair of ecto blasts. Danny flew down under the blasts allowing them to sail harmlessly into the sky. He then zoomed up the now deserted street and plowed into Technus causing him to fly backwards smashing into an abandoned car.

"Jeez Technus if you really want to take over the world you really shouldn't be lying around like that." Danny smirked at the

Technus shook his robotic body and stood back up. "Foolish child! I am Technus master of technology! You think you can defeat me that easily?!"

Danny was already moving before Technus finished his sentence and flew at Technus and quickly swung his ice sword severing the head of Technus's robotic body. "Actually, yes." Danny said victoriously blasting the robots head to pieces with an ecto blast.

His victory was short lived however as Technus quickly shed the robot body showing his true appearance of an old looking ghost wearing white with light gray hair and a pair of sunglasses.

"I do not need my robotic form to defeat you! I shall destroy you none the less!" The elder ghost shouted as digital radios pulled out of their abandoned vehicles and surrounded him.

"Bring it techno dork." Danny said raising his sword in front of him.

Before the two could come to blows again a loud horn sounded in the distance distracting the pair's attention. They looked towards the noise to see a big silver RV with a big flaming green F on the side.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me…" Danny muttered and Technus seemed to deflate a bit, "They just love getting in other people's business don't they." Technus complained.

"Well to be fair _you_ were yelling about taking over the world. As in the world they live on." Danny reasoned to him out loud.

"That is completely unrelated to this!" Technus cried as the RV came to a stop and the Fenton adults jumped out and trained their weapons on the ghosts floating above them.

"FREEZE SPOOKS!" Jack Fenton's voice boomed at them as he aimed his Fenton Bazooka at Phantom.

"We won't let you terrorize our city any longer!" Maddie added in training her ecto blaster at Technus.

"Okay hold up, time out." Phantom cut in making a timeout motion with his hands. "I came here to fight him, he was the one terrorizing people, I had nothing to do with it."

"Quit it with your lies ghost! We'll stop you from harming our town anymore!" Madde said decisively, shooting her ecto blaster and sending Technus flying backwards as the radios he had been controlling fell to the ground.

Jack fired off a shot of his own towards Danny who didn't even have to try that hard to dodge as his aim was considerably off. The blast went soaring harmlessly into the sky as Danny quickly returned fire knocking the weapon out of his arms and causing him to stumble backwards.

Danny felt something hot hit him in the shoulder and saw that Maddie was pointing her smoking blaster at him. His eyes narrowed briefly and he quickly flew at her ignoring the heat from the blasts she continued shooting at him.

He quickly reached her and grabbed the blaster out of her hands. "I'll be taking that if you don't mind." He quipped and turned intangible as she tried to punch him in the head. He was quite glad she was wearing a hood and goggle as he wasn't quite sure how he would feel seeing his mother trying to punch him. It was easier to think of them as just ghost hunters.

"Get away from my wife you ectoplasmic fiend!" He heard the other hunter yell at him and he tried to pretend that wasn't his father's voice.

He turned to find that Jack was pointing what looked like… "A soup thermos? Really?" he asked raising an eyebrow in disbelief at the hunter.

"Take this spook!" Jack said and pressed a button on the thermos. A few moments passed and nothing happened.

"I'm sorry was something supposed to happen?" Phantom asked genuinely curious.

"It was supposed to suck you up and trap you so we could take you back to the lab and rip you apart molecule by molecule." Jack said with less enthusiasm rather put out that it hadn't worked.

"Really glad that it didn't work then." Danny muttered before letting out a cry of shock and pain as something whacked him on the side of the head and caused him to fall.

He pushed himself up rubbing the spot where he got hit only to see Maddie had some sort of long glowing bo-staff. He rolled out of the way when she brought it down again in an attempt to hit him.

Phantom raised his sword and blocked the next strike of the staff and briefly knocked Maddie off balance. But the hunter quickly recovered and expertly swung the staff at his legs to knock him off his feet. He was hard pressed to maneuver his sword to block the blow to his legs and the move left him in an awkward stance.

Maddie took this opportunity to quickly jab him hard in the chest knocking him over while he was adjusting his he hit the ground he had no delusions of having superior skill in this situation.

Still he did have the superior abilities.

When she moved to attack him while he was on the ground he went intangible and sunk into the ground.

The experience was a bit more unsettling than he was was expecting. For starters it was dark. Pitch black in fact, he could see nothing, not even the light that was generated from his ghostly aura. Phantom moved slowly and really hoped he was going in the right direction.

When he reached where he wanted to he flew fast in the direction he thought was up and couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved when he found himself in the light again. Also fortunate was the fact he was where he wanted to be.

Right next to the Fenton RV.

He smirked and used his sword to slash the tires thus immobilizing it for the time being. He then sheathed his sword.

Danny glanced around the edge of the vehicle and saw the hunters were distracted by Technus who had pulled himself back up and was attacking the Fenton's again. Maddie had picked up the Fenton Bazooka from where it had fallen from Jack's grip before and was now using it to trade fire with Technus who was doing a very impressive job of dodging.

Jack on the other hand was attempting to do some form of percussive maintenance on the thermos he had tried to suck Danny up with. As far as he could tell it was going well for the ghost hunter as he gave up whacking it and now just started shaking it and muttering, "Please work, please work!"

It was a tiny bit pathetic.

"Stop shooting at me you insufferable female hunter!" Danny heard Technus rant at Maddie was another blast nearly hit him. He had regained control of the radios and was attempting to use his powers to turn them into something but he kept getting distracted by being shot at.

"Not until you surrender yourself to us ghost!" Maddie shouted and fired another shot off. Honestly he could approve of them hunting the more violent and power hungry ghosts like Technus or even the Box Ghost but the fact of the matter was the Fenton's saw all ghosts as evil. They viewed things in black and white. Good and evil. Human and ghost.

"OH WHAT'S THE POINT." Jack suddenly cried out distracting everyone who stopped whatever they were doing to look at him in confusion. "I'm a failure of a ghost hunter, a failure of a scientist and a failure of a father." Danny winced at that last one. "Everytime I try things just get screwed up. I can't even hit one measly ghost." He chucked the thermos behind his back and in a one in a million chance it whacked Danny on the forehead and he let out a cry of surprise.

This now drew the hunter's attention back to him as Jack had a hint of his old grin return to his face and Maddie narrowed her eyes and trained the bazooka on him.

Well that certainly wasn't good, he thought ruefully.

He grabbed the thermos for a reason he hadn't yet thought of, and quickly flew into the air and out of the way of the green bazooka blast. It slammed harmlessly into the side of an abandoned car. Hopefully the driver had ghost hunter insurance. Probably not but it was certainly a good idea in this town.

Blasts followed him as he arced over the hunters and grabbed Technus by the hair pulling him along for the ride. He thought he might've heard Jack saying something about how he actually managed to hit a ghost. Well good for him. At least it wasn't with that Bazooka.

"Owowowowow…" Technus continuously toned as Danny dragged him across town by the hair on his head. But Danny ignored him and looked at the metal contraption in his hand. It wasn't that impressive. It was basically a soup thermos with a cap and a futuristic design. It didn't _look_ broken, in fact it looked to be in as good condition as any of the Fenton's other weapons.

"LET GO OF ME GHOST CHILD." Technus shrieked at him in pain and anger causing Danny to turn his attention to the other ghost. He slowed to a stop and released his grip on Technus's hair.

"That was incredibly uncomfortable." Technus complained loudly.

"Would you rather I left you to the ghost hunters?" Danny deadpanned at him.

Technus glared at him, "I'll have you know I was just biding my time until I could construct my cool car radios into a new body that I was going to use to deal with those meddlesome hunters once and for all!" He defended.

"Good for you, that would've given them a much bigger target to shoot at!" Danny snarked back at him and continued to examine the thermos. It wasn't broken in any way he could tell, in fact it just seemed like it didn't have any power. Maybe…

To test his theory he pulled the cap off and directed the device at Technus who was currently in the midst of ranting.

"...and another thing, why are only the radios in most motorvehicles truly electronic? I mean there are other bits and bods but nothing big, I mean the blinking lights could be useful but…" Danny just tuned him out and try focusing his power into the capture device. It started to hum in his hands after a moment or two.

"Wait a second. What are you doing with that-" Technus was cut off as Danny pushed the button "THIIIIINNNNGGG!?" He screamed out as a bright white light erupted from the thermos and sucked him inside. Danny quickly put the cap on the top closing it and trapping Technus inside.

"LET ME OUT OF THIS THING!" Technus's voice demanded as the thermos shook in Danny's hands.

"How about I don't do that?" Danny suggested, "One down, a ton to go." He muttered under his breath. Hopefully this thermos would make the job of capturing every ghost on Walker's list somewhat easier. He looked around to find out where he had ended up exactly.

The most notable structure nearby was the Amity Park Library. There was a large number of people standing on the stairs as well as on surrounding sidewalks, gawking at him.

Uh-oh.

The screaming began almost as soon as he noticed them. Pedestrians started rushing for their cars or the nearest building hiding inside and away from the "scary ghost". It was both funny and slightly degrading as he wasn't even trying to be scary.

After a few minutes everyone was gone save for one person on the foot of the stairs leading up to the library. Danny blinked and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

Yep that was Jazz Fenton standing there.

She was looking at him inquisitively. Most like she recognized him even with his cloak on account of the DP on his shirt. Now he had a few mixed feelings here. On one hand she was his annoying psychologist-wannabe big sister when he was alive. On the other hand she was the only person from his previous life who hadn't expressed immediate dislike towards him upon meeting his ghost. And on the other, other hand he wasn't sure if he could remain calm while talking to her.

But from the way she was staring at him he had a feeling she wanted to talk to him. And if he flew off she would probably go to her parents and use them to track him down. That is if she was as determined and focused as he remembered he was. Although, to be fair he couldn't remember her that well.

He sighed loudly and made his decision.

* * *

 _Amity Park, nine PM…_

Lucy Smith liked to think of herself as a normal girl.

She was in her sophomore year of highschool. She had a few friends such as Abigail "Abby" Albany, and her twin, George.

She used to think her town was pretty normal too until the ghosts started showing up.

Lucy and just about everyone else in town knew about the Fentons and their obsession with ghosts. It had led to the Fenton's children being virtual social outcasts among their peers. Admittedly Jazz seemed nice enough when she met for tutoring in English a year earlier,but while she had hated her parents obsession she had one of her own in Psychology.

Then the Fenton's son died. A lot of people muttered about how they were irresponsible and horrible parents and that Jazz should be removed from their custody for her own safety.

But before anything could actually happen the ghosts started showing up and people realized the Fenton's weren't _completely_ crazy, and that they needed them to deal with the problem.

Of course the ghosts made even walking outside at night alone pretty scary but Lucy was a big girl she could handle herself if a ghost showed up. That's not to say she would try fighting it but she knew to run when she saw one.

This particular night she was heading to Abby's house for a study session and had chosen to take a shortcut through an alleyway.

As Lucy walked through the Alley she thought saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She whirled to see what it was but all she saw was an old pile of boxes. Oh she really hoped there wasn't a hobo.

She turned around again after staring for a moment and had to cover her mouth. A few feet in front of her was a figure hunched over facing away from her and leaning against the wall. It wore a dark gray coat and had a gray had on she couldn't see anything else as he was facing away.

For a moment she didn't move but the man (for she assumed it was a man from what she could tell of his build) seemed to be in some sort of pain.

She steeled herself, "Sir, are you alright." she asked hoping her voice sounded as strong as she willed it to be.

"Oh I'm alright." The man responded his voice coming out a rasp, "Just hungry. It's been awhile since I had a proper meal."

Lucy said nothing and bit her lip, this probably was a hobo, but where had he come from? She hadn't seen him standing there before.

"You know young lady," The man said in his raspy voice with a bit of an accent, it sounded british? Hard to say with the way he was rasping out every word. "You really shouldn't be out alone at night, t could be dangerous."

"I can take care of myself." She said crossly.

The man straightened himself still leaning against the wall. He began to laugh but it sounded to Lucy like more of a cackle. "Oh you seem like a strong young lady, and in most situations I'm sure you're right. This seems like a nice town, I'm sure what little scum is around here wouldn't dare attack you."

Lucy didn't like the way this conversation was going. She started backing away from the man.

She turned around to run out of the alley but as soon as she turned she was faced with a tall figure. He was wearing a gray coat and top hat and had a styled mustache. That much was normal but his skin was a greenish blue and his eyes were glowing a deep blood red.

"But I'm not from around here." The man said as a red glowing object in his hands plunged into Lucy's chest and she let out a gurgled scream of pain.

* * *

 **And I'm going to cut it off there for now.**

 **Hey! Look! the Ripper made another appearance, and I finally mentioned one of the OCs someone sent in :D**

 **No it wasn't the girl that died, I mentioned the OC and they'll be appearing again with a part to play sooner or later.**

 **But anyway next chapter Jazz and Danny are going to talk but she's not going to find out the truth just yet. I'm waiting to reveal that. I'm sure you're all excited for it and I am too but I don't want to rush into it.**

 **And what did I say!? This chapter was definitely longer than the last one. I'm quite proud of that.**

 **Anyway it's review time!**

 **Kimera20 : Glad you thought so and don't worry Ember will question Danny soon. He's got some 'splainin to do.**

 **Duskrider: I was going for something like that, there are many fics in which halfa Danny has Amity as his "haunt" and I wanted to bring some of that into this story but in my own way.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: Patience young grasshopper they will join us before the arc ends.**

 **OptimisticEmotion: Thanks I needed that, updates may be slower but I'll try and keep up the quality if not make it better.**

 **ImpudentMiscegenation: It's okay if you don't review every chapter but reading the reviews I get is one of my favorite things about posting. I like hearing feedback.**

 **ReenaKAnda: Yeah that's right.**

 **RosaAnna1177 : I get the not wanting to log in part and glad you think it's a good idea!**

 **Well that covers reviews but what is this!? Could it be!?**

 **As of July 11th this story has 100 followers!**

 **(Various cheering noises!)**

 **I'm so happy (more than now) 100 people have followed this story and are enjoying my work. Thank you all.**

 **Well that's it for this time. See ya'll in the coming days.**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	16. Lots of Talking, Because Reasons

**Here we are back again for what may be a better end.**

 **Because seriously I ended the last chapter with a freaking first degree murder in an alleyway and, quite frankly, that's pretty fucked up if I do say so myself.**

 **Which I do.**

 **This one will end with less death.**

 **That's not to say I'm going to shy away from death and killing off characters. Trust me, I can be a psychopath at times when it comes to killing characters.**

 **Actually don't trust me, I can be a psychopath.**

 **No the girl's not going to come back as a ghost like Danny. I have no place for her. She existed only to die. I did mention her friends for a reason though, they'll have a bit of purpose. More so later but they'll do stuff.**

 **Now then last time this stuff happened!**

 **-Danny and Technus fought**

 **-The Fenton's showed up**

 **-Maddie, Technus and Danny had a three way (battle not the other thing you sickos.)**

 **-The Ripper claimed his first human victim in Amity Park**

 **Anyway, I don't own Danny Phantom. If I did when it ended I would've at least made it into a comic like Invader Zim did.**

 **Story time!**

* * *

 _Danny's POV, Amity Park, October 26th…_

Jazz looked well a least.

Last time he had seen her she had bags under her eyes giving her the look of an insomniac. He hadn't payed much attention at the time but after remembering she was his sister he had realized that it was probably due to his death.

"Uh hi Jazz." Danny started, "How have you been?"

"I should ask you that, from what Sam and Tucker reported to my parents, you had some sort of freak out when they attacked the other ghost." Jazz tapped her foot expectantly.

"Wait you know about that and, not that I'm complaining, you don't hate me for reacting like that?" Danny asked curious.

"I don't exactly believe my parents about the all ghosts are unfeeling post human consciousness. From my studies of you and other ghosts you definitely seem to be feeling something that goes beyond just memory of emotion." Jazz explained her reasoning then narrowed her eyes, "Don't dodge the question."

Danny squirmed uncomfortably under her scrutinizing glare for a moment. Before sighing, "Fine I remembered something from when I was alive."

"Really? Good for you! Now, LET ME OUT OF HERE." A voice not Jazz's spoke out and Danny glanced down at the object in his hand. A Fenton Thermos that had Technus trapped inside. Danny gave it a shake, "AH! STOP IT! YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE HOW UNCOMFORTABLE TERRIFYING THIS IS!"

Jazz noticed the device now that it's occupant had brought notice to it. "Isn't that one of my parents devices? Did you steal it from them?"

"Yes and not really, your dad technically gave it to me." Danny explained to her not wanting to tilt whatever opinions of him that Jazz might be forming.

"My dad the ghost hunter gave a ghost one of his inventions?" Jazz asked skeptically.

"Technically I said. First he tried to suck me in and when that didn't work he threw it at me. So yeah technically he gave it to me." Danny culled her skepticism.

"Hmm." Jazz hummed, "So you remembered some of what your human life was like?"

Danny gave a slight involuntary wince, "Can we not talk about my life, I can't remember much clearly and the bits I can remember are mostly unpleasant."

"Are you sure? Talking about it might make you feel better." Jazz explained.

"Yes I'm sure and from what I've learned ghost emotions work different than human emotions, you were right we can still feel but it's not in the same way as you humans do. At least that's how it was explained to me." Danny told her.

"Really? Do you know how it's different?" Jazz asked him looking very interested and actually pulling out a handheld notepad and pen.

"I'm not sure how the emotions themselves feel different as like I said I can't remember much of being alive but instead of chemical reactions in the human brain, hosts have some form of energy reactions in our core." Danny explained it as best he remembered.

"What do you know you actually remembered that, I guess you aren't as stupid as I thought ghost child." Technus's voice echoed out of the thermos again.

"Would you just shut up." Danny said to the trapped ghost starting to shake the device again.

"OKAY, I Technus the hippest ghost in the zone, will remain silent, but only to plot! Just don't shake this anymore…" Technus begged him.

"I'll consider it." Danny said giving it one last shake for good measure with a smirk and heard Technus scream in anger and fear.

Jazz finished scribbling whatever she was writing on her notepad and looked back up at Danny, "Why does he keep calling you child? You look young I guess but you've probably been a ghost for years, right?"

"Umm, I don't really feel comfortable talking about that." Danny muttered and looked away.

"Fine." Jazz shrugged and scribbled something else on her pad, before looking back up at him again. "What was with the power boost you got? Apparently your power jumped considerably while you were fighting Sam and Tucker."

"Yeah I know about that and it has to do with stress I was under as well as remembering some stuff it kind of messed with my core a bit and it changed to deal with it." Danny explained.

"You've mentioned that a few times, what exactly is a core?" Jazz asked sounding very curious.

"You don't know?" Danny asked incredulously. "Your parents are ghost hunters and it sounds like you've been looking at their research and you don't know about a ghost's core?"

"I've never seen anything in my parents research about a core. Although I've only been looking over their work the last couple weeks but I'm sure they would've mentioned it if they knew about it and from what you say it sounds important." Jazz noted thoughtfully.

"You know what I'll loan you a book about cores but I'll need it back as soon as you're done with it. It's not exactly mine." Danny decided. "I'll bring it here tomorrow if you're interested but I need to bring this guy somewhere." He said holding up Technus's thermos.

"What do you mean you need to bring me somewhe- NO STOP THE SHAKING I'M SORRY!" Technus was cut off when Danny started shaking the device once again.

"So talk to you tomorrow?" Danny suggested.

"Sure." Jazz smiled a bit.

Danny nodded and leaped back into the air and flew towards his house. Time to turn in the first ghost on Walker's hit list.

* * *

 _Ghost Zone, Walker's prison, a few hours later..._

Danny slammed the thermos down on Walker's desk with a cocky grin causing the prison warden to raise an eyebrow at the device.

"And what, Phantom, is this?" He asked looking up at Danny. "You do realize real world devices are against the rules don't ya punk? Do you want me to lock you up before your time is up?"

"Well it's not like you gave me anything to capture any of the ghosts you want me to bring in and technically it currently belongs to Technus." Danny explained with a shrug.

"The tech nut?" Walker asked skeptically and picked up the thermos. He examined it for a moment before pressing the button on the side labeled 'release'. A bright glow sprang out of the thermos and a green form came out.

"FINALLY!" Technus shouted in relief as soon as the light faded. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE IN THERE!"

Walker had actually jumped in surprise at the appearance of the other ghost out of the thermos but quickly called for guards to come and take the ghost into proper custody. When Technus was removed (but not before he could swear his vengeance on both Phantom and Walker) and taken to a cell where he would be held for the next thousand years (or until the next breakout).

Walker now turned his attention back to Danny and the prison warden narrowed his eyes. "You're on some shaky ground punk. Technus may have been inside that thing but you were still the one in possession of it."

"Well you didn't give me a lot of options for how to get these ghosts you wanted back here. Was I supposed to ask them nicely?" Danny countered crossing his arms angrily.

Walker glared at him, "Watch your mouth, I could lock you up at a moments notice if I wanted to."

"Fine if you won't let me use the thermos then can you give me something else that I can use to catch them?" Danny asked pointedly.

Walker remained silent for a moment before growling and tossing the thermos back to Phantom. "Fine you can use it, but you better not keep it in the Zone or else." He threatened ominously.

Danny rolled his eyes but remained silent. He didn't want to deal with Walker anymore than he had to. Egging him on in an argument was on his list of things not to do when talking to the Ghost Zone prison warden.

So Danny decided to just leave before he got Walker angry at him and the warden decided to forget their deal and just throw him in a cell for the next thousand years.

As he flew back to his lair Danny had some time to think about things. Jazz had seemed quite interested in ghosts but not like the adult Fentons. They seemed too focused on the negative side of ghosts but Jazz had seemed quite neutral on the matter.

At least the confrontation with the humans who had been his parents didn't end badly. And by end badly he meant strapped to an examination table as they took him apart molecule by molecule.

That was always a plus.

* * *

Before long he had arrived at his lair. Maybe he could head out back to the human world and go incognito to the mall again. He had enjoyed the last time. Minus the Box Ghost attacking and Cujo eating about half the food court, including the parts that weren't food. Hopefully they had fixed that up by now.

He opened the door to his lair but froze as soon as he floated in. Ember was sitting on his couch legs crossed and glaring at him expectantly.

"You have some talking to do dipstick." She demanded.

"Umm, how long have you been sitting there exactly?" Danny asked both trying to change the subject and genuinely curious how long she had been waiting there because it was a three hour round trip to Walker's prison and back.

"Don't change the subject, you know what I'm talking about. You've been acting different ever since we got back from the human world the first time." Ember pressed on.

"Well so have you!" Danny countered closing the door to the lair behind him as he properly entered.

"Yeah well I have a reason, you've been quieter and I can tell there's something on your mind you don't want to think about.." Ember noted.

"How do you know that, and even if there was why would you press the subject." He said frustrated. He vaguely noted that Cujo was on the bed watching them bicker back and forth.

"Because it's messing with you dipstick. What did the ghost hunters do to you that messed you up so much. It wasn't just stress from dealing with your obsession." Ember shot back at him.

"Nothing! I mean they tried to end you, but they didn't do anything to me!" Danny defended.

Ember narrowed her eyes, "They were trying to end you too, they were just really bad at it."

"Okay maybe they were! So what?" Danny turned away crossing his arms and biting his lip.

"Oh yeah I almost forgot, when we at the lab where the portal leads you said you would tell me how you knew about the house. If you don't tell me what's going on with you at least tell me how you knew about that." Ember decided.

Danny remained silent theorizing that Ember knew the two things were related and simply pretended to change the subject because she knew he would keep his word. He sighed and sat down at his desk.

"While we were in Amity and especially after I fought the ghost hunters I…" He trailed off asking himself if he was really going to talk about this.

"I kinda remembered who I used to be."

* * *

 **Look! A cliffhanger!**

 **I'm a jerk :P**

 **But anyway once again I apologize for shortness, I'm just having trouble with my drive to write this story, it'll come back eventually but it's hard to force it.**

 **Also I have another story in the works and it's not something I've written for before and I'm trying to get a rough draft of the first chapter done so I can self edit and maybe even peer edit.**

 **Oddly enough this new story will have a two word title with the same first letter. Just like my others. I started with SS then GG and now LL.**

 **As to what LL stands for, you'll have to wait and see. But quite frankly I do hope you like robots and artificial intelligences. Also things blowing up. Lot's of that.**

 **I'm writing a Michael Bay movie.**

 **No I'm not but wouldn't it be cool if I was? At least the plot would make sense then.**

 **Anyway it's review time!**

 **BaconLover1800: Sorry if the update is not soon enough for your tastes but here it is all the same!**

 **Kimera20 : Death for days! He's going to be around for quite some time so get used to that. I won't write out every murder he commits but we'll hear about them from either news sources or other characters finding the bodies.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: I actually think pure oil would be a better term. Because oil is black gold and black is a dark color… and it was a dark ending… shut up I'm clever. Also parodying might be a word? My spell check isn't correcting it…**

 **Puppies: I'm glad you think so and thanks for the good night as I'm uploading this chapter quite late…**

 **TheDisneyFan365: Jack and Maddie, as smart as they are, aren't the sharpest crayons in the knife box. Also no Lucy won't be alright. Her mutilated corpse is in an alley somewhere. And don't worry your OCs will be playing a part just give it a few more chapters.**

 **HetaliaGirl-21: Glad you think so! I hope you continue to enjoy!**

 **RoseAnna1177: Hopefully I delivered on that, I'm not all that great at mushy and sweet scenes, I'm much better at writing dark and painful. Issue is only writing that gets me feeling depressed and not being able to properly write mushy and sweet also gets me depressed, basically I'm stuck in a loop sometimes.**

 **ImpudentMessenger: I shall alway be glorious even at the worst of times! For I am FriTik! The slightly crazy writer! Also your feedback is much appreciated. Thank you.**

 **Duskrider: I'm glad you think so.**

 **That's all folks! Hopefully I edited this properly because I'm basically running on a caffeine high from too much coke and it's like three AM. if I didn't well I'll deal with that horse when the train runs into it.**

 **Until we meet again! I don't know where, don't know when! But I know we'll meet again some bloody day!**

 **Computer: You mean sunny right?**

 **FriTik: Sure…**

 **Wait why are you here?**

 **Oh yeah right, I need to practice writing you again…**

 **Bye guys!**

 **~FriTik**


	17. Get Over It

**Hiya guys sorry about the long wait on the bright side it wasn't like the wait between the first and second chapters!**

 **I wanted to get the first chapter of Lightman Legacy out. For those of you who enjoyed Megaman/Rockman as a child feel free to check it out. To those who didn't… Well feel free to check it out anyway.**

 **But yeah I spent most of my time working on that first chapter (the first one can be so difficult sometimes) and the rest of my time was spent playing with java making a chatbot!**

 **Who turned out to be an asshole when I finished.**

 **Seriously I screwed up the program and it only used the negative and 'annoyed' responses I programmed into it.**

 **These are the first two lines of the chat:**

 **Me- Hi**

 **Asdf- Go away.**

 **That basically sums up our relationship for the first few hours.**

 **I got it fixed eventually but still.**

 **Well last time this stuff happened!**

 **-Danny talked to Jazz!**

 **-Technus went to Walker!**

 **-Ember wanted answers!**

 **-I left you guys with a cliffhanger!**

 **Anyway with no more distractions, I can finally resolve the previously mentioned cliff hanger we left off on.**

 **Also I've added Ember to the list of characters as she's having a bigger role than I first thought she would.**

 **Now then, let's begin!**

* * *

 _Danny POV, His lair, October 26th..._

Ember's eyes widened at the blunt statement. Danny braced himself for the inevitable line of questioning.

"Huh. Well that must suck."

Danny slumped and stared with no small amount of confusion at Ember. He opened his mouth but before he got the chance to say anything Ember smirked at him.

"What did I tell you when we first met? It's rude to ask about a ghosts death and technically their life before their death falls into that category. If you don't want to tell I won't ask." She explained.

Danny sighed with some relief and a tiny bit of guilt. He should at least tell her something. "Thanks but you were still wondering what was going on so I owe you a bit of an explanation.'

"You sure?" Ember asked displaying some uncharacteristic concern.

"Yeah." He sighed again and leaned back in his chair. "When I was alive, I lived in Amity Park."

"Well that explains a few things." Ember muttered.

Danny nodded, "Yeah while we were there I started to remember but I kinda tried to repress it."

He stared numbly thinking about what to say next. "It all led up to what happened with the hunters, I recognized the girl and everything kinda broke after that."

"So you used to know the hunters." Ember said, it was not a question merely a statement of fact.

"Yeah." He paused, "I honestly can't say what's wrong with me exactly. I mean just thinking about my life is putting me in a funk."

"Get over it."

Danny shot up in surprise at the insensitive statement. Ember was glaring at him.

"You're not the only one who has to remember a life they just can't have any more. So just forget about it and move on with your afterlife." She practically ordered him.

It took Danny a moment before he realized the underlying hurt of her words. She was right, he wasn't the only ghost that had to deal with this. But the question was could he deal with it, most other ghosts didn't see they're living relatives and friends.

"Look dipstick I know it's tough but I told you the first time we met that memories will come back to you." Ember shrugged. "I get that it's got you upset but that's what happens. You gotta move on."

Danny sat silently for a moment. "I'll see what I can do." He told Ember with a nod.

"Good, because honestly you getting all depressed is getting on my nerves." Ember responded.

"We don't have a nervous system anymore." Danny pointed out.

Ember rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean, also next time I tell you I want answers don't give me answers. They'll probably be all dreary and upsetting."

"Nice talking to you too." Danny said as she left. He reclined in his chair and stared at the starry ceiling of his lair.

Just get over it…

Meh, it was worth a shot. It wasn't like he had any better ideas.

* * *

 _Jazz POV, Fenton Works, the next morning…_

Jazz sat at the table sipping coffee and reading over an English essay she had been working on. She had already proof read it the night previous but one always needed to be sure.

Her parents were downstairs in the lab working on new weapons. Apparently Phantom was actually making them nervous. They hadn't exactly been talking to her but the previous night she had heard them discussing that _none_ of their weapons were working anymore.

Jazz personally wasn't all too concerned about Phantom being dangerous, from her talks with the ghost he seemed to be quite reasonable.

Of course just because Phantom didn't seem to want to attack humans didn't say anything about other ghosts. If Jazz was correct in assuming ghosts were just as diverse as humans could be then that meant for every ghost like Phantom there could be one who wanted to cause harm.

She put the essay down sighing and looked up at the TV on the counter. She had it on the morning news. She idly listened to the weather report.

After the weather was over Jazz picked up the remote to turn off the TV. But before she could hit the power button big letters appeared announcing a emergency news bulletin.

"A horrible event took place last night." The anchorwoman said, "Sophomore student Lucy Smith was found dead in alleyway three blocks from her house. We go to our reporter in the field Lance Thunder."

"But I'm a weatherman why am I repor- That's right Liz, last night John and Jane Smith reported their daughter missing when she had not arrived at her friend's house and were unable to contact her. Police found her body lying in an alleyway with multiple stab wounds from what appears to be a knife." Lance reported. An alleyway in the background had yellow police tape blocking it off.

Jazz stared with wide eyes at the TV screen. She knew Liz, true she didn't know her very well but she had tutored the girl in the past and she showed promise in her classes. So much so that the need for tutoring didn't last.

"As of this moment police are baffled by this case. No evidence regarding her killer have been found. Residents in the area are highly advised to not go out alone at night until this killer has been caught." Lance finished up. "Back to you Liz."

Jazz clicked the TV off and leaned back in her chair. It was hard to think about. Things like this didn't happen in Amity Park. The ghosts were one thing but no had died because of them. Sure there were accidental deaths like what happened to Danny but a murder?

That was unthinkable.

* * *

Jazz thoughts kept returning to the murder of Lucy Smith as she drove to school. She kept trying to think of something else but her thoughts kept returning to it. Most likely she was subconsciously trying to rationalize it. That's normally what the human brain did with information that upset it. Either rationalize or repress.

As she drove down the road she noticed people running down the sidewalks in the opposite direction. She took a moment to glance at them before looking forward again and immediately slamming on the breaks as something black whizzed past and slammed into a nearby building leaving a hole in the wall.

Jazz opened the window and looked out in time to see none other than Phantom fly back out of the hole and straight into a… flying green tiger?

Ghosts came in all shapes and sizes apparently.

She watched Phantom literally tackle the other ghost with both arms around its neck. The tiger bucked its hind legs obviously trying to throw him off.

As she watched Phantom's eyes glowed blue. As Jazz watched she could've sworn he looked like someone else she knew but she couldn't put her finger on it.

As the thought crossed her mind Phantoms hands joined his eyes in glowing blue and icy tendrils jutted up from the neck until a block of ice completely encased the tiger's head.

Phantom's grip slackened, he probably assumed the fight was over, and so did Jazz for that matter. But the tiger wasn't done yet. It bucked up again this time throwing Phantom off. The ghost caught himself in the air but before he could orientate himself the tiger swiped at him sending him crashing to the ground creating a small crater. Right next to Jazz's car…

She turned her attention back to the tiger and stared in shock as the tiger turned black and then morphed into some sort of black blob. With nothing left to hold onto the ice fell to the ground.

She stared in shock as basic face formed on the blob just a toothy grin and a pair of glowing red eyes. It turned and spiraled off to who knows where.

"Ugh ,damnit." Jazz heard someone say and looked to see Phantom prepped up on his elbows staring after the other ghost.

 _Danny POV, same time, same place…_

Stupid shadow ghost with transforming abilities. He still was quite sure how exactly that worked. Why couldn't he do stuff like that?

He had been flying around town looking for a furniture shop or a halloween shop or both (what was the point of having a haunted house if you couldn't make it looked haunted?) when he had encountered a giant freaking green bee.

It attacked him first. Otherwise he might have just ignored it, it wasn't hurting anyone and it wasn't on Walker's list. Not that he could be sure because he didn't have it with him but he was fairly sure he would have remembered there being a giant bee he had to go after.

After fighting it for awhile it had transformed into a snake. An honest to god flying green snake. Like something out of chinese dragon legend. After fighting that it had transformed into the tiger. But by then he figured it might be Bertrand. From what he read about Spectra's loyal aid he had the ability to transform into anything really.

He was sure Bertrand had shown his true form just to mock Danny. Sighing he looked at the claw marks on his torso that were leaking ectoplasm. The green wouldn't stain his shirt at least because well it was kinda part of him. He glanced up at the car next to him and his eyes widened in surprise.

"We have got to stop meeting like this." He joked seeing that the driver as Jazz.

"I'd say." Jazz said getting out of the car. She looked down at his injury, "Umm are you okay? I'm not sure about ghost biology but that injury could be lethal to some humans."

Danny waved her off, "I'm fine it'll heal soon." He winced as he started to stand up, "It does hurt like hell though."

"Huh ghosts say hell as slang, interesting." Jazz noted putting a finger on her chin.

"It's not all ghosts, depend on when we died I think." Danny told her. "I know a kid from the fifties who says things like hot dog and some other unusual stuff."

Jazz looked like she wanted to ask something and it didn't take genius to figure out what it was, "No I'm not going to tell you when I died, that's personal." He really shouldn't even be talking to Jazz, he was trying to move on from his life not continue to go back to his one link, it wasn't like he'd gone looking for her though.

"You just told me when the other kid died though." Jazz reasoned.

"Yeah well you don't even know who I'm talking about." Danny shot back. The pain in his chest had numbed and he looked down the see the wounds had closed and the shirt had repaired itself.

"Who was that other ghost?" Jazz asked glancing at the chunk of ice on the ground and then in the direction Bertrand had flown off in. "And what was up with the whole transformation thing?"

"That's Bertrand one of the ghosts I'm after." Danny shrugged. He would've just sucked him up in the thermos and been done with it but he had left that at his haunt. He hadn't exactly planned on catching any of the ghosts on the list.

"Ghosts you're after? Like Technus? Are you some sort of ghost bounty hunter?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah like Technus and I guess I kinda am…" Danny shrugged, "Long story short I got in trouble with the warden and he's making me catch a bunch of ghosts who got loose. In exchange I don't get tossed in his prison for the next thousand years."

"What kinda trouble did you get into to get a thousand year sentence." Jazz said with wide eyes.

"Since it was my first offense he gave me a light punishment." Danny said.

"Light!?" Jazz exclaimed, "Also wait a second the Ghost Zone has a warden?" She asked.

"Well kinda, the Ghost Zone has different areas. Walker's the strongest ghost in the barrens which is where your parent's portal opens up." He explained, "It's basically one of the most populated areas. Also one of the most dangerous though since it's so big and no one really listens to Walker's rules."

"Why doesn't anyone listen to his rules?" Jazz asked surprised, "Wouldn't that make things more peaceful?"

"Yeah a lot of the ghosts in the Barrens aren't exactly the peaceful type, I mean look at me, I'm probably one of the friendliest in the area and I fight other ghosts every other day." He paused, "Also as to why no one listens to Walker one word, cabbages."

Jazz blinked in confusion. But before she could say anything Danny remembered something. "Oh yeah!" He said reaching into his cloak.

A moment later he pulled out _Cores; A Summary,_ By The Ghostwriter. "You said you wanted this yesterday, I was gonna give it to you later but since you're here now…"

"Thanks." Jazz said with a smile taking the book from him.

"I'll be back for that later." He told her, "It's owner threatened to do some very unpleasant things if I don't bring it back to him."

"Okay then." Jazz said she glanced at her watch. "Oh shoot! I need to get to school!"

"And I should probably leave before your parents get here and try to blast me again." Danny turned to take off, "See ya around Jazz."

With that he flew off into the air scanning the buildings left in right in search of a furniture store or Halloween store.

* * *

 **And that's the end of that chapter.**

 **So yeah, "get over it" honestly I feel that's something Danny can do.**

 **In cannon Danny gets over things pretty quick. For example:**

 **Best friend just tried to kill him? Sick in bed together a day later!**

 **Love interest attempts to kill him every other day? Bear absolutely no ill will or desire for revenge!**

 **Evil future self destroys the world? Shrugs it off and decides never to become him.**

 **Honestly I read fics in which Danny has PTSD and nightmares and stuff like that and I get that the guy should have some problems, I really do. But let's face it he's just the kind of guy who can get over things pretty quick.**

 **As to mentioning the Barrens now and not sooner, well I realized that the Zone is fucking massive and that it's probably divided up into certain areas. I probably should've mentioned it sooner but the idea really took root a few days ago.**

 **Here's a list of some of the regions I've come up with.**

 **The Barrens**

 **Ruler: Walker**

 **The largest region where most ghosts end up. It's highly unruly which isn't helped by its ruler's unhelpful laws.**

 **The High Zone**

 **Ruler: Observant High Council**

 **Where some of the oldest and most powerful ghosts dwell. These spectres keep relatively to themselves save one named Clockwork.**

 **FarFrozen**

 **Ruler: Frostbite**

 **Where most ice core ghosts dwell and where the legends of snow monsters from human myth took form.**

 **Olympus**

 **Ruler: Pandora**

 **Many of the greek and roman legends took form as ghosts and reside in the so called city of the gods.**

 **The Abyssal Depths**

 **Ruler: Sinbad**

 **A massive ocean where the spirits of those who lost their lives at sea reside.**

 **Netherstorm**

 **Ruler: Anomalus**

 **Where magic first took hold in the universe these mysterious ghosts tend to keep to themselves.**

 **Well that's all I got for now. I'm sure I'll come up with more later.**

 **Anyway time for reviews!**

 **BaconLover1800: You're right longer updates are normally better ones!**

 **Bleached Raven: And I'm up again late posting this! I think I might be a bit of an insomniac. And of course Walker's a prick he wouldn't be Walker if he wasn't!**

 **RoseAnna1177: Yes a cliffhanger! Fear it's power!**

 **ImpudentMiscegenation: I am terribly sorry about that screw up on my part! As I mentioned I was up rather late and on a caffeine high, it won't happen again.**

 **Kimera20 : Yes a cliffhanger, which is now resolved. Yay.**

 **Pweety Preety: Fear not loving friends is acceptable, because let's be honest relating it to romance every time it's used is just too much.**

 **Mary Cipher : Your worst enemy is my greatest writing tool when I'm stuck for an ending!**

 **Guest: Sorry but we got a long way to go before it's done. None the less I feel your pain.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: Here is more Jazz familial interaction!**

 **Candy Phantom: In order of answering your reviews: Cabbage is the ally of the moon tree, no shiny pointy things for you, I had trouble with Poindexter too that chapter took me awhile, yeah 'fraid you can't be in the prison raid but if you have an OC send it in and I will take it into consideration! Also not much of a monsters vs aliens fan sorry, meh I don't judeg, I might've meant haunting... , it's Lightman Legacy actually I suck at romance.**

 **Cf96: Awesome is acceptable.**

 **lily girl 412 : Welcome to the story and glad found chapter ten that funny! Thanks!**

 **Duskrider: Hopefully Ember's reaction is acceptable.**

 **And that's all for this time!**

 **Until next time folks!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	18. The Hunt

**How do you do folks!**

 **It is I, FriTik!**

 **No i'm not dead and a ghost yet.**

 **I wonder what obsession I would have...**

 **Anyway, show of hands, who has missed me updating this?**

 **I sure have.**

 **See the problem is I had no idea what to do for this chapter. I know what I want to do for chapter 20, but this one and nineteen? I have literally spent hours trying to come up with what to do. On the bus, in my bed, at gym, in the shower, etcetera**

 **I have plenty of ideas for this but quite frankly I couldn't figure out which one to use. Some of them appealed more than others. For instance I had the idea to do a remake of Shades of Gray, thus introducing Valerie into the story. Even not doing this I still plan to bring her into the story in the near future.**

 **I've also had the idea of doing a Five Nights at Freddy's chapter. Well kinda. Not the same place or story or any of that but the idea of a haunted pizza restaurant. I actually still plan to do this just not quite yet.**

 **But finally after much deliberation I finally figured out what I wanted to do!**

 **Who here has heard tell of the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter?**

 **He doesn't even roll need when shields drop in dungeons!**

 **If you get that joke I'm proud of you.**

 **Anyway last time this stuff happened:**

 **-Ember told Danny to get over it**

 **-Jazz found out about the Ripper's first victim**

 **-Danny fought Bertrand**

 **-I finally mentioned some of the Zone's different regions**

 **Well that's all.**

 **Let's begin!**

* * *

 _Amity Park, October 29th…_

With halloween in a couple of days decorations were going up left and right. Every store was full of both decorations and candy. Lots and lots of candy. Anyone walking through these stores could bear witness to many numbers of children gawking at the delicious treats and either wishing the thirty first would come sooner or begging their parents to buy them a bag.

Walking down any given street passersby could admire the fearsome decorations put up by the homeowners. Just because the town was actually haunted didn't mean the people there were going to allow the ghosts to enjoy being the only ones scary on halloween.

On the topic of ghosts there were rumors going around of a ghost that was different than the others in town. A sort of ghostly vigilante. Of course there were many mixed opinions of this so called vigilant. Ranging from worry about what he would do once the other ghosts were gone to the idea few held that he was an arch angel sent to save them from the damned souls that assaulted them.

Of course the Fentons denied the existence of a "good ghost" maintaining that all ghosts were nothing more than shards of post consciousness lacking anything beyond faded memories of emotion. The only thing that they were capable of was focusing on their obsession which left them nothing more than territorial animals.

The humans weren't the only ones who were aware of this ghost. The other ghosts knew of him as well and they too had a variety of mixed feelings.

The majority of ghosts, who remained in the Ghost Zone despite the readily available portal out, ignored him, seeing no reason that his actions were of any import. If he wanted to deal with the humans and the more vicious ghosts then let him.

These "vicious ghosts" had their own opinions on him.

Penelope Spectra saw him as nothing more than a pest. She couldn't feed on the misery of other ghosts so the only thing he served in doing was making her periodically look over her shoulder. She had sent her assistant Bertrand after him to test his mettle to see how much they needed to be concerned about him interfering with their plans.

The Box Ghost saw him as a worthy opponent. A foe who could face the incredible and terrifying might of all things rectangular and square, and still be willing to fight despite the inevitable defeat awaiting him.

The Ripper, the butcher of the Ghost Zone, initially paid little attention to this Phantom. He was of no concern to him. He had an obsession to feed and powers to regain after all. But as he heard bit by bit more and more of this young ghost he began to become interested in just what he was capable of.

Technus... well Technus was just glad that Phantom had let him out of that stupid thermos.

There were numerous other ghosts who had their own opinions on him but there was one who stood apart from the others. One who saw Phantom not as a nuisance or foe to fight, oh no…

This one saw him as a worthy prey to hunt.

Then there was Phantom himself. What did Danny Phantom think of all these opinions gathering about him? Well…

"YOUNGBLOOD GET OFF MY BED!"

He has other concerns right now.

* * *

 _Ghost Zone, Danny Phantom's lair, Danny POV…_

"Oh come on Phantom don't be such a spoil sport." The childish ghost told the slightly more mature one ignoring his wishes and continuing to jump on the bed. "It's fun to do this."

"Look Youngblood I don't have a problem with you jumping on the bed, I have a problem with you jumping on _my_ bed." Danny emphasized floating nearby glaring. His ice sword leaned against the outcropping the bed rested on.

Youngblood bounced a few more times before landing on his rear and sticking his tongue out at him, "Ah, you're not using it."

"That doesn't mean that it's okay for you to jump on." Danny told him before sighing, "What do you want anyway Youngblood? I was going to go see how Poindexter has been doing."

"That square?" Youngblood asked before moving onto the topic he came to discuss, "I came to find out what we were doing for halloween."

"What do you mean we?" Danny asked skeptically.

"Well you're the only lower class ghost with a way to the human world." Youngblood told him, "Clockwork could probably open one if he wanted to, problem is he won't." Youngblood complained.

"Yeah well he probably has a good reason for that you know." Danny told him.

"Yeah probably something boring like the fate of the world or some stupid thing like that." Youngblood said flopping backwards on the bed.

"It probably wouldn't be a good idea to go out on halloween anyway." Danny said, "The ghost hunters will probably be paying extra attention that night."

"That'll just make it more exciting." Youngblood exclaimed throwing his arms up before letting them drop.

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Look I'll think about it okay?" He told his friend. "I'll talk to you at that ship you're building tomorrow."

"Great!" Youngblood said jumping up. "See ya!" He called and was out the door in less than three seconds not giving Danny any time to reconsider.

Cujo, who was laying on the floor near the door. Twitched at the slamming but otherwise ignored it.

Danny sighed and stretched out in the air before "laying" on his back. Halloween… He twitched at a memory fragment of two adults garbed in hazmat suits running around town pointing ecto-guns and other devices at every other tricker-treater.

Now that there were actual ghosts it might not be a good idea for them to go out. Not that he couldn't handle the hunters but Youngblood wasn't as strong as he was. In fact he seemed to be more powerful than any of his friends and acquaintances.

He shook himself, he could look into it later. For the time being he had things to do.

* * *

 _Later…_

"See ya Poindexter!" Danny called back as he flew away from the gray recreation of Casper High.

Poindexter was doing pretty well. He had been defending himself against his former bullies who he had discovered he was stronger than in this world. So things were looking up for him.

As Danny flew back he was careful to avoid Bob the Determined's domain. He did not want to have another confrontation with that guy. The first time had been weird enough for his afterlife-time.

He began brainstorming as he flew. Youngblood wanted to go out for halloween. Danny figured that meant trick or treating. Or pulling pranks. Might be either when it came to Youngblood. Ironically doing the math he was about two years older than Danny. The afterlife is funny like that.

So distracted by his thoughts was he that he failed to notice the ectoplasmic rocket trailing green speeding towards him.

* * *

 _Some time earlier Skulker's POV, his island lair…_

Rockets? Check.

Net? Check.

Ecto-blasters? Check.

Jetpack? Check.

Pocket Cage? Check.

Phase-proof rope? Check.

Skulker ran through a mental checklist of his arsenal. He had just about everything he needed to capture this Phantom as he called himself. Apparently he had been causing quite the ruckus in the human world since Skulker had met him during the riot at Walker's prison. He had heard that he had begun hunting other ghosts to get the warden off his back.

Skulker's expression turned cold and he blasted a nearby tree on his jungle island lair in a brief fit of anger. How dare that whelp show up and start hunting? There was only one hunter on this side of mortal plain and that was Skulker, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter.

He shook himself mentally. Soon that whelp would be in a cage as the first ice elemental Skulker had added to his collection. He went back to his checklist.

Suit Controls? He glanced down at the device on the wrist of his suit. It was cracked and sparked dangerously. He scowled at it. Good enough for now. Perhaps he could go to Plasmius for an upgrade. Of course the halfa would have him do some sort of job in return…

But Skulker could think about that later. He activated his jetpack and launched himself into the Infinite Realms. And felt a sense of elation in his core. He almost permitted himself a smile.

The hunt was on!

* * *

 _Back to Danny, present time…_

Danny had been completely unprepared for the projectile. It exploded in a haze of burning pain and green. Danny felt himself go soaring through the Zone in an uncontrolled tumble. He eventually righted himself and scanned around for the source of the attack while simultaneously reaching for his sword. When he grasped air he grimaced. Right, it was back at his lair.

"Hello again child." A menacing voice said from behind him. Danny spun around only to get a face full of green colored pain. He went flying again propelled by the ecto-blast and crashed into one of the Zone's islands, smoking.

He dizzily looked up and finally got a good look at his attacker. He saw a silver battle suit, green eyes and a flaming mohawk. Danny vaguely recognized the appearance but it took him a moment to put a name to it.

"Scowler?" He asked still feeling a bit confused.

"It's Skulker whelp!" The other ghost correct with anger lacing his words.

"Well can you blame me I only met you the once and your face does match the name." Danny shrugged pulling himself out of the rock face.

"You'll pay for that comment." Skulker swore then raised his arm. The back of his wrist opened up and a blaster came out. A green glow started in the barrel.

"Uh, care to explain what this is about?" Danny asked charging up an ectoblast of his own.

"I suppose I should tell you shouldn't I?" Skulker admitted before his grin widened. "I'll be happy to explain once I have you in a cage."

"Wait what?" Danny questioned with confusion momentarily losing focus on his attack.

Skulker took the opportunity and let his own blast fire. Danny regained his wits just to have them knocked out of him again by the attack. It slammed into his chest pushing him back into the rock with enough force to split it down the middle.

The rocks halves floated apart leaving a small debris field between them. Among the fragments Danny floated blinking in surprise. That had hurt more than he thought it would. Technus had never managed to hit that hard.

He narrowed his eyes and they blazed with green. "You want to play rough?" He asked loudly enough for Skulker to hear his words. "FINE! I'll play rough!" Ecto energy surrounded his hands and he launched himself at Skulker blasting away at the hunter.

The other ghost moved quickly to dodge the attacks but the blasts just increased in frequency surrounding him with green light. Almost like some demented version of hyperspace. Eventually he was unable to dodge all of them and he was quickly pummeled said him somersaulting backwards.

Skulker righted himself just in time for Danny to slam into his chest with enough force to create a large dent in his armor. The two spectres went tearing across the Barrens bringing stares from the occasional ghostly inhabitant. The staring didn't last long as fights in this area weren't uncommon. Every other ghost had some obsession that made them violent.

Skulker finally managed to right his upper torso enough for him to bring his fist down on Phantom knocking the smaller ghost downwards. Skulker flew for a bit longer firing up his jetpacks to cause the inertia to even out and eventually reverse.

Danny caught himself after Skulker had hit him and glared up at the hunter as he returned. "Still haven't had enough metal head?" He called and charged an ecto blast in his palm.

"The hunter never gives up child!" Skulker shouted back as rocket launchers popped out of his shoulders. (Which doesn't make sense if you think about it, I mean they come out of these little tiny openings and suddenly it's like a dozen rockets between the pair… Anyway back to the story.)

Danny struck first blasting his shot straight at Skulker's head. The armored ghost barely dodged the attack letting it sail harmlessly into the Zone. He quickly righted himself, and locked on his rockets and firing a barrage at Phantom.

Danny saw the incoming barrage and quickly brought up his energy and with a yell a wave of green energy expanded from his form detonating the rockets harmlessly and even pushing Skulker back several meters.

Danny hunched over. He actually felt tired after that. Skulker noticed his more submissive posture and grinned with cruel glee. "You're wasting your energy whelp. I won't lie you are powerful. A worthy prey! But you lack proper technique and power management. That will be your downfall!"

Danny bowed his head as Skulker moved in. Even with the natural ghostly energies of the Zone it would take time to properly recharge. That was time he didn't have. Of course he wasn't out of this fight yet. "I'm not done yet Skulker." He said as he let the constant cold grow to freezing temperatures. He glared up with glowing icy blue eyes.

Skulker was unprepared for the sudden change and froze momentarily. Danny brought both of his hands over his head and charged a blue ball of energy between them. He quickly brought his hands down and let his blast fly at Skulker.

The hunter brought up his arm and fired off a powerful ectoblast of his own. The two attacks met in a clash of blue and green meeting in the middle with energy cascading off like excess water. At first it appeared the be a stalemate but Danny called up every bit of his pyrokinesis he could manage. His attacked turned a lighter shade.

"HEY SKULKER! YOU NEED TO CHILL!" He shouted as his own attacked over took Skulker's and engulfed the hunter. The light remained for a moment before fading. Skulker was still there but now he was shivering in the center of a large block of ice.

Danny smiled briefly at the image but it quickly faded. He felt so weak. The natural ectoplasmic energies of the Ghost Zone were probably the only thing keeping him from losing his form and dissolving into ectoplasm. He had Skulker right there. One of the more dangerous ghosts on Walker's list. But he doubted he would have the energy to get him to Walker's Prison right now. Nor did he trust the warden when he didn't have the power to defend himself.

Danny glared at Skulker's ice cube in frustration. Then he sighed and slumped. He would have other chances to get Skulker. Right now he needed to rest.

With one last look Danny turned a floated off back in the direction of his lair.

* * *

 _Skulker POV…_

Inside the head of his suit the blob-like true form of Skulker shivered. That stupid whelp… It was so cold. His suit's controls were completely frozen! Though he probably should've made sure to have frost resistant armor when trying to capture a ghost with cryokinetic powers.

But that was besides the point!

He would get that child back for this mark his words! Forget the cage, he would put that whelp's pelt on his wall!

As soon as he figured out how to get out of this block of ice.

* * *

 **And end.**

 **We finally have Skulker in the story instead of just a brief cameo in chapter twelve!**

 **Well that took longer to get out than I planned for!**

 **Seriously sorry about that I've been busy.**

 **Anyway let's get to the reviews.**

 **DorothyMichaels: I'm glad I can actually cause my readers to feel emotional about parts. Also the part about Danny being dead? Considering some of the other stories in this category it may be a bit of a blessing…**

 **BaconLover1800: You've probably forgotten again because once again I took a long time to update. But I have once again included a brief summary. So no worries.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: Can you tell me what it was so I can recreate it? I want all my chapters to be enjoyable.**

 **TheDisneyFan365: Thanks and here is more of my work.**

 **Imp. : Thanks for the abbreviation idea. Here is the next installment and being fabtatulistic seems superspeicalawesome. Kudos if you get the reference.**

 **Kimera20: Yeah Danny's going to visit just about every region I come up with before it's over. **

**Natzi Sumbitch: Hello and sorry but I don't feel like coming up with something un-generic. I just had gym, too tired. Anyway as to his friends and family finding out. It honestly ranges from very soon to not soon at all. Depends on which person.**

 **Sonozaki Shion: Glad you found it interesting. I figured going underground with no obvious way out would be absolutely disturbing and weird so I added it.**

 **Imnotraven16: Glad you think so.**

 **Well that's just about all. Once again I am terribly sorry for how long this took. I had other things going on. Like school. And video games. You know, important stuff.**

 **Until next time!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	19. Halloween

**Hello folks and a jolly All Hallow's Eve to you!**

 **It's been far too long since last I posted but honestly I needed it. I needed to get my head and schoolwork in order and I needed a break from the constant pressure of producing an update.**

 **But here we are once again for chapter nineteen!**

 **It took me a bit to figure out how to write this chapter but I think you'll enjoy it.**

 **Anyway last time this stuff happened!**

 **-People were starting to find out about Phantom**

 **-Youngblood wanted to do something for Halloween**

 **-Skulker attacked Danny**

 **-Danny won (duh)**

 **And now it's time for the chapter!**

* * *

 _Amity Park Town Hall, October 30…_

A reasonably large crowd of people were gathered outside of the Town hall building. It was not the first such meeting in recent months and more than likely it would not be the last. The majority of the previous had been announcements on new laws effective immediately for the safety of the citizens. This meeting had a similar purpose but was being handled a bit more democratically.

This particular evening the crowd was mostly made up of parents and grandparents of younger children. A few other adults were also there to cement their standing in the community, such as the Mansons.

The purpose for this meeting was rather simple, to discuss whether or not trick or treaters would be allowed out on Halloween night.

So far it looked like Halloween was going to ruined this year. Stupid well meaning parents. Also stupid Sam's parents.

"People, people, remain calm! The mayor demanded into the microphone attempting to get his citizens attention.

"It's far too dangerous to let the kids out!" One concerned mother cried.

"We should just make sure they stay in large groups. I'm sure they'll be safe!" A non-parent but probably alcoholic-uncle called out.

"If we don't believe in them, the ghosts can't hurt us!" Some random high schooler named Tristan yelled.

The mayor pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to fight off the oncoming migraine. How was he supposed to know what to do? There were freaking ghosts! Actual ghosts! What the hell was he expected to do about it? He was just the elected official! He couldn't make decisions by himself!

Then there were the Fentons. Damn those people were actually insane and it wasn't because of the ghost thing. That actually turned out to be completely justified as it was.

They were just so…

Eccentric.

* * *

 _Meanwhile, the Fenton Household…_

"Maddie!" Jack called from the main floor down to the lab as Maddie worked on a new Fenton Bazooka.

"What?!" She shouted back up not taking her eyes off her work. The swirl of the ghost portal was suddenly disrupted by a mass of purple tentacles reaching out and flailing around the lab grabbing equipment and breaking tables.

"We're out of Fenton Fudge!" Jack replied, completely oblivious to the tentacle ghost monster, "Also regular fudge!" A pause followed. "MADS WE'RE OUT OF FUDGE!"

Maddie calmly pulled out her ecto pistol and nonchalantly shot the tentacles until the retreated, smoking, back into the ghost zone.

"That's okay sweetie just have cookie instead!" She shouted back continuing in her work.

* * *

 _City Hall Again…_

 _VERY_ eccentric.

Well at least they weren't here. Of course he also had the Mansons here which he could live without.

It wasn't that they weren't nice people, or well they acted like they were anyway, it was just that they tried so hard to influence people. It was no wonder their daughter had decided to go goth.

Well ignoring them he decided to just talk and hope everything went smoothly. That's how he won the election after all!

* * *

 _Danny's Lair, October 31st…_

"EAT IT."

"NO STOP IT I'M FINE NOW."

*CRASH*

"EAT IT NOW OR I"LL LIGHT THE BOOKSHELF ON FIRE!"

"THOSE AREN'T EVEN MY BOOKS!"

"I'm counting on that." Ember smirked finally managing to somehow corner Danny in a circular room.

Somehow Danny managed to pale even more despite his already green tinted whiteness. An image of Ghostwriter came to mind only with demonic horns to match his beard and fangs. He let out an involuntary shudder at the thought.

"Fine I'll eat the stupid ectoplasm." Danny submitted and grabbed the bowl out of the ghostly rock-stars hand.

Perhaps some context would be helpful here.

After his fight with Skulker, Danny floated his exhausted form back to his lair kept afloat only by the residual ecto type energies and substances of the Zone. Upon arriving back at his home/lair he had immediately collapsed on the floor in the middle of the room not even possessing enough energy to make it to his bed as well as hold his solid form. He then proceeded to pass out for the second time in his afterlife.

What fun!

Several hours (he assumed anyway) later he was found by Ember who had managed to wake him up by force feeding him some pure ectoplasm. The stuff tasted horrible. While toxic to humans, apparently it was some sort of combination of alcohol and medicine for ghosts. It basically gave ghosts more energy and if they were at normal power the excess energy would cause effects similar to intoxication. Thankfully since Danny was so low on power he managed to avoid that part.

Still tasted terrible though. Ember claimed it was an acquired taste.

Since then Ember had taken it upon herself to make sure he had constant intakes of ectoplasm to ensure he wouldn't fall apart. Each time since the first two when he was too weak to object had been quite the spectacle. The most recent feeding was being spectated by Youngblood and Cujo.

Honestly who would've thought Ember could act so concerned?

Not that Youngblood or Danny would say anything for fear of what she would do to them if word got out she had a soft side. Even if said soft side involved hitting things until they listened to her. And by things I mean Danny.

After forcing himself to swallow the ectoplasm and begrudgingly accepting it made him feel better. Danny pulled himself to his feet.

"Great now that we're done here we can go out for halloween!" Youngblood cheered.

"What?" Danny asked completely out of the loop. Wasn't it the twenty ninth? Wow he must of been really out of it to miss two entire days passing. "Is it really Halloween already?" He rubbed his face.

"Uh yeah? Where have you been the past couple of days?" Youngblood asked.

Danny gave him a deadpan stare.

"Oh yeah right." Youngblood chuckled and his parrot rolled his eyes at the childish ghost.

Danny avoided commenting further and looked to Ember. "You want to come with us?" He asked her.

"Gee let me think about it. How about… no." Ember replied sarcastically as she walked towards the door.

"It'll be fun!" Youngblood called after her.

His response was the slamming of the door.

"I can't say I'm too surprised." Danny admitted. "Well come on let's go." he said walking towards the door the house in the human world. Youngblood gazed after Ember for a moment before shrugging and following Danny with Cujo on his heels.

* * *

 _Amity Park, That Evening…_

"Huh where is everyone?" Youngblood asked in confusion that Danny shared.

They stood on the roof of an apartment building looking down at the street. The noticeably _empty_ street. There were no trick or treaters anywhere. To be honest it was a bit unsettling.

"Did Halloween get cancelled or something?" Danny commented.

"Well it is quite possible." Youngblood's parrot spoke up gaining the pairs attention. "After all the town is under daily threat from the more violent ghosts. Would you let your kids out at night?"

"But it's halloween!" Youngblood exclaimed unable to comprehend parents not letting kids out to get free candy from strangers. Wait that doesn't seem safe in the first place…

"Well what do we do now?" Danny asked feeling more than a little put out.

"Maybe we could just tee-pee some houses?" Youngblood suggested.

"Yeah that could be fu-" Danny was cut off by a maniacal laughter slicing through the quiet night.

"MUAHAHAHA" A figure atop a flaming horse flew over the street in front of the building Danny and Youngblood were standing on. As the figure flew by what looked like thousands of pieces of candy flew after him as the pair stared with wide eyes.

The laughter trailed off into the night as the spectacle continued on leaving a very confused pair of ghosts.

"Youngblood." Danny said.

"Yeah?"

"Did you just see a guy with a pumpkin for a head on a flaming horse fly down the street followed by thousands of pieces of candy?"

"Yep."

"Oh good I was worried that tonight was going to be weird."

* * *

Twenty minutes later Danny and Youngblood had finally managed to confront the pumpkin headed ghost. Or at least they assumed it was a ghost because honestly what else could it be?

The pumpkin headed ghost just continued to cackle in a creepy sort of way. Not creepy as in scary more like creepy as in there's something seriously wrong with this guy.

"So my name's Danny Phantom, this is Chuck Youngblood who are you?" Danny asked trying to keep his tone normal.

"You ask my name, yet sound so lame! My powers great, shall not let you escape!" Pumpkin head cackled as he held up his hand and a ball of orange flame formed.

"Did he just rhyme at us?" Danny asked as a fireball forced the pair to dodge out of the way.

"That is so lame." Youngblood commented righting himself in the air.

"Lame you say? I'll make you pay!" The horseman cried throwing more fireballs at the pair. The fireballs slammed into the ground creating smoking craters in their wake.

"Dude you have some serious anger issues. Maybe you and Ember should go to group therapy for your flaming tempers?" Danny suggested cockily.

His answer was another wave of fireballs.

"Harken cur! Tis you I spurn!" A flaming swords appeared in the horseman's hand. "Now feel, the burn!" He shouted out as he slashed his blade. From his slash an arc of fire carved through the night towards where Danny had floated moments before.

"Jeez chill out will you?" Danny said before shooting an ice beam at the horseman.

The pumpkin headed maniac just held out his blade and a stream of flames cascaded off the blade and met Danny's attack in midair halting it.

Right ghost fire ghost ice. Danny mentally scolded himself, he really shouldn't let himself forget things like that.

He wasn't able to scold himself for long though as the rider was suddenly upon him and slicing across his mid-section. Danny gasped in pain and sunk in the air. He looked up at the cackling ghost, his pumpkin head grinning wickedly.

"Behold my wicked blade and learn to fear it! For I am Halloween's one true spirit!" The ghost cackled.

"What about the Fright Knight? I thought he was the ghost of Halloween?" Youngblood asked from where he floated.

The horseman tensed a bit before turning and shooting a fireball off at the younger ghost. Youngblood didn't bother commenting as he turned and raised his pegleg and fired off a cannon ball which blasted straight through the oncoming fireball and straight into the horseman. Sending him hurtling, mount and all, to the ground.

"You got him!" Danny said with some relief.

The candy which had up until now remained floating in midair began falling to the ground. Danny and Youngblood floated down to where the horseman had crashed. The horse lay on it's side and let out one last whinnie before it dissipated into smoke. The horseman's body lay on the ground with no sign of the head. Danny and Youngblood shared a glance.

Suddenly the body leaped to its feet causing both ghosts to step back in surprise. The body raised its sword and started spinning trying desperately to hit something.

"Get over here you idiot," The horseman's voice sounded not even bothering to rhyme and sounding quite frustrated. The duo looked to see the pumpkin head laying upside down on the ground.

"How about no." Danny said and shot a large ice blast at the horseman's body turning it into a block of ice.

By now the candy had finished falling and there was now a large pile of it. Danny walked over to the horseman's head and picked it up before looking into his eyes letting his own blaze with ecto-energy.

"Let's sit down and have a nice long chat **buddy."** Danny said in a dangerously calm voice.

* * *

 _Five minutes later…_

"So basically-" Danny paused to shove a piece of candy in his mouth. "You thought the candy would give you some sort of magical powers? Dude it just tastes good."

Danny and Youngblood sat atop the mountain of candy shoving pieces into their mouths, the pumpkin head of the horseman sat between them.

"Well to be fair the human seemed to think it was very important." The pumpkin said sounding a fair bit embarrassed about the situation.

"Oh it is." Youngblood agreed pulling a jumbo sized lollipop out of his mouth. "VERY important." He shoved the giant piece of candy back in.

"Hey what's your name anyway" Danny asked swallowing the chocolate he'd been chewing. "You never did say when you, ya know, tried to end us for no good reason."

"Sorry about that, got a bit caught up in the moment." The head apologized.

"Name?" Danny reiterated.

"It's Frank.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"No wonder you tried to kill us. Again that is."

* * *

 _Fenton Household…_

Jack Fenton shot up in bed screaming.

Maddie groaned and turned the light on. "Jack sweetie what is it? It's the middle of the night. Did you have a bad dream?"

"It was horrible Maddie! There was a giant green asteroid coming towards the earth, Vladdie was an evil ghost, Danny had been a robot the whole time and the Fenton portal blew up! And that wasn't even the worst part!" Jack cried.

"Were we out of fudge?

"WE WERE OUT OF FUDGE!"

 _ **FIN.**_

* * *

 **Happy Halloween everyone!**

 **I'll do reviews next time. See ya!**


	20. Revelations: Part One

**It's been a long time coming.**

 **But it's finally here now.**

 **I know you've all been waiting.**

 **But chapter twenty is here now!**

 **In other news chapter 20. Boom. This one's going to be a long one which includes a very interesting conversation and a long awaited revelation to a certain someone that I have been building up to for literally a dozen chapters now.**

 **So yeah that's happening.**

 **Last time this stuff happened**

 **-Halloween was canceled!**

 **-Ember proved to have a violent caring side!**

 **-Danny and Youngblood fought Frank the Pumpkin headed Horseman!**

 **-I accidently made it kind of crack**

 **I might go back and fix that last part if I have time.**

 **Anyway, this time Clockwork is going to be chatting about the future and gloom and doom and stuff with a new character who I debated adding sooner, and as to the other thing if you can't figure it out well...**

 **Wait and see.**

 **Anywho, so Time and Death walk into a floating Clock Tower…**

* * *

 _Clockwork's Tower, the Ghost Zone..._

Clockwork silently sipped his tea in the awkward silence that seemed to penetrate every corner of the tower at the moment. Well to be completely accurate it was not exactly silent in the structure due to the constant ticking sound that seemed to resonate from the walls. But it was still noticeably awkward despite this development.

Clockwork and his current companion stared blankly at each other neither really quite sure what to say to the other. Now normally Clockwork's abilities allowed him to simply know what would mostly likely be said but with this… entity, it was nearly impossible to predict the outcome.

Said entity in front of him was Thanatos, the Reaper. Essentially death incarnate.

To be quite honest, Clockwork was not sure what to think of the Reaper. The two had worked together at various points in the past to ensure the survival of their mutual universe. But every time they met neither of them seemed to know how to react to the other's presence. They were both exceedingly ancient but in different ways. A reaper was chosen at the time of their death, while a time master like Clockwork simply came into being at the beginning of the universe.

Of course some background information might be needed here. It was the duty of the Time Master in make sure that a universe survived to its expiration at which point they could finally allow themselves to "pass on" after their long and trying existence. Why the Time Master was not required at that point was simple, much like humans and other purely organic lifeforms a universe could only last so long before it began to decay at which point it could be delayed but not stopped altogether. Once a universe decayed fully a new one would form due to stimulation to the copious amounts of energy and matter left behind from Void Energies, which were complicated at the simplest levels. The process would start again and so on and so forth.

A Reaper on the other hand was very different, both in origins and in duty. A Reaper is a being created from a soul that had suffered greatly in life, enough so that ordinarily they would become a ghost if there was enough ecto energy around or if the barriers between realms were weak enough. Upon the physical body's death the soul would be approached by the original Reaper, (an entity Clockwork hoped never to meet), and it would be given two options, one being that the soul would be guided into the next life by the Original and option two was simply they would become a Reaper. Forever.

It might seem like a no brainer, but Clockwork had been assured that to a soul that had suffered in life and had likely had a horrible death the option to continue to operate in the living world seemed very tempting.

So it was a Reaper's duty was to monitor the barriers of life and death and ensure that lost souls moved on and a bunch of other annoying lesser duties.

But after certain… events many universal cycles prior, Reapers and Time Masters had been given a new task that they were to cooperate on.

Keeping different dimensions and universes from interacting with each other.

The Ghost Zone, while a different realm than the physical universe, was still a part of it, much like the No-world only less… empty. Therefore interaction was acceptable but discouraged between the two plains.

Universe on the other hand were different. The cycles made it so that each universe would birth, expand and die. Each time the next would be… better than the last. Larger, more advanced, more populated or less so. The belief was that the creators had designed it in an attempt to achieve perfection. It was only a matter of time before mortals and lesser beings found a way to travel between them.

"You have yet to explain what exactly this threat is Clockwork." Thanatos brought the Time Master out of his thoughts.

Clockwork repressed a sigh. "That is because I can barely see what it is." He admitted uncomfortably as he shifted into an old man. "I have no idea why I cannot see it properly but based on what I have seen I saw fit to call you."

"Show me." The Reaper told him. It was not a request and rightfully so.

"Very well." Clockwork shifted into his childlike form and waved his staff causing a viewscreen to appear next to the table.

Images flashed across the screen.

A blond haired man in dark silver armor standing over a ruined city. A katana sword coated in strange runes clutched in his hand.

Another image, a massive green crystalline fortress floating in the ghost zone. Great vortexes of concentrated ectoplasm being sucked into strange structures connected to the central citadel.

An army of horribly malformed entities and shining machines marching through a large gateway. The inside of the gate was a shimmering veil of blue energy.

The screen cut out and fizzled before dimming and clanking to the ground.

"I may not be an expert in time matters but I'm fairly certain that's not supposed to happen." Thanatos commented.

"You're right but if I'm not careful that is what happens when I look down the most likely timeline." Clockwork explained. "Those images are the results of years of effort."

"That is concerning."

 _Really I hadn't noticed._ Clockwork resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Is it… is it a second coming of the Conqueror?" Thanatos asked with something akin to fear in his voice.

And with good reason.

The Conqueror was the reason universes were no longer allowed to interact. In the early days of interdimensional travel organizations began forming that would explore the various dimensions. At first the interactions were peaceful. But as time went on mortals hungered for more and more power. The higher deities at the time saw no reason to interfere with the affairs of lesser beings.

They should have.

The man who would become the Conqueror was just another one of those investigating the curiosity that was infinite possibilities. But as time went on something dark was born behind those curious eyes.

Details were few but in a span of ten thousand years the entire Deital Hierarchy of the time was overthrown. The man had found various ways to unnaturally extend his life and used every last year to achieve whatever his insane, twisted and broken goals were. An army of machines and genetically enhanced soldiers. The most powerful artifacts and any beings that could be swayed to his cause from across reality. His armies toppled gods and titans. Empires and Governments. It was nearly the end of it all.

All because of one deranged mind that could not handle the infinity of the infinite.

"We both insured an alternate of him would not occur in our universe. Even in the timelines where he could have existed here, he would have not amounted to what his ancient counterpart managed." Clockwork explained.

"Then what was that?" Thanatos asked.

"I don't know." Clockwork admitted. "Though I do have suspicions, the body is definitely mortal but the mind… the mind is something else. I believe that whatever manner of entity is possessing that human is what is blocking my powers from viewing it properly."

"A demon?" Thanatos suggested.

"Unlikely but still a possibility. I doubt it is any ghost though. The energy that thing is emanating is nothing of our realm." Clockwork admitted.

"What do you plan to do?" Thanatos asked.

"Prepare. And you should as well. As the initial events grow closer I can see more and more of what is to come. I have begun discreetly preparing those who I believe could be great assets in coming events." Clockwork told him.

"Why not just kill off the cause?" Thanatos asked.

"I investigated that but it appears that what is coming is fixed. If I kill off what causes it now it will still occur but in a way I cannot foresee."

"Devil I know rather than the devil I don't." Thanatos chuckled.

"Quite." Clockwork said with melancholy.

* * *

 _Danny POV, Amity Park…_

Danny was having a bad day.

Scratch that he was having a miserable day. Which is quite fitting seeing he was fighting a ghost that feeds off of people's misery. Either way it still sucked.

As well as her transforming henchman... butler… pet... thing.

Speaking of which he should probably get the giant tiger off his chest. And save Jazz. Also everyone else from sinking completely into depression because of Spectra feeding off their emotions to gain her strength. But mostly Jazz.

The irony that the sister he once found annoying was one of the most important people in his afterlife was not lost on him. It's not that he didn't love her when he was alive it was just that they were never the closest of siblings.

Now people may wonder how he got himself into this situation.

The whole mess had begun on Monday…

* * *

 _Five_ _days earlier, Monday..._

"YOU CAN"T HAVE ANY PUDDING IF YA DON'T EAT YA MEATS!" The Lunch Lady ghost roared as her appearance became more demonic and terrifying, causing the last of the remaining students in the lunchroom to flee rather than stick around to watch the fight.

"You are insane!" Danny shouted back at the Lunch Lady as she tried to force feed him with the meat she was telekinetically controlling. He responded by blasting the meat to smithereens with ecto blasts.

"Why won't you eat it? It's good for you!" She shrank back down to normal and recommended pleasantly.

"Lady I'm dead, you're dead. It won't do us much good at this point." Danny rolled his eyes as he explained.

She blinked stupefied for a second. For a moment he dared hope that she had actually calmed down. Sadly not so.

"HOW DARE YOU! MEAT WILL ALWAYS BE PART OF A BALANCED DIET!" She roared, angrier than ever.

"Shit." Danny swore, he should've known that bringing up her obsession would be a bad idea. Today was not going the way he thought it would.

Normally he wouldn't have much of a problem with fighting another ghost. Usually it was either Box Ghost or one of the ghosts on Walker's list. Unfortunately the Lunch Lady was neither. She just really wanted him to eat the meat apparently. Something about being too skinny for his age.

Why was he at Casper High again? Oh yeah he wanted to see if Jazz was done with Ghostwriter's book. He needed to get that back to him soon. Seriously he was starting to get paranoid about the guy showing up one day threatening to rip his limbs off if he didn't return his books at that exact moment.

Instead of finding Jazz he had found the Lunch Lady, terrorizing the lunch room (go figure) so like the good "law abiding" ghost he was, he decided to step in and try saving the day.

After his first encounter with Bertrand before Halloween, he had started always carrying his thermos on his person no matter where he was going or what his plan for the day was. Danny had decided it was a better idea to quickly use the thermos on them rather than just getting into a fight.

It was just his luck however that the thermos had been knocked out his hands the moment that the Lunch Lady had seen him. It was still lying on the floor where he had dropped it. He just needed to reach it but for some reason he could not phase through the... were those sausages? Binding him. They were glowing green so that probably had something to do with it.

To be fair it was his own fault that he was in this mess, he had severely underestimated the Lunch Lady. He had not expected her to be able to react fast enough to stop him from quickly capturing her and moving along with his business.

"GAH!" Danny cried out as he was slammed into the floor. Okay this was starting to get old.

"Would you like a cookie dearie?" A kindly voice asked him, he couldn't see her but Danny had no doubt the other ghost was now legitimately offering him a tray of cookies.

"I am one hundred percent done with bipolar lunch ghosts." Danny growled into the floor. He let the now familiar cold wash over him. The sausages wrapping him froze over with ice and he easily shattered his meaty bonds.

Okay that was a bad one. He needed to work on his material.

The Lunch Lady had been shocked enough at the sudden drop in temperature and rapid escape of Danny that she did not have time to react before Danny flew forward, grabbed the thermos and directed it towards her, sucking her inside.

"Sorry but lunch is over!" Danny said putting the cap on it. He then went over his words in his head and grimaced. "Damn, I really need to work on my material."

He took a look around the now abandoned lunch room. Not surprising really considering what just went on in here. There thankfully was not too much damage but there were a lot of piles of various meat products. Also the floor around where he had been thrown into the ground now had frost creeping around it and a small indentation that suspiciously shared his height and size.

Why was it fights between powerful other-dimensional beings made such a mess?

Well at least there weren't any…

"Freeze Phantom!"

Clockwork freaking damn it. The universe just loved to prove him wrong, didn't it?

Danny turned to face the two ghost hunters who currently had ectoplasmic bazookas trained on him. One wore orange and the other wore purple and both were roughly the size of the average high school freshman.

Sam and Tucker.

Danny kept his expression carefully neutral.

"I don't suppose you could just let me off with a warning?" He suggested only half joking.

His answer came in the form of a green ecto-blast from Sam's weapon. She always had been a tad more violent than other people. Especially towards other people.

"I guess not." Danny commented, more to himself than to them. Truth be told he really did not want to get into a fight with his former friends (living friends?), but if this kept up he wouldn't have a choice. Best to make a well placed retreat.

"Well as fun as it would be to fight you guys." He paused to dodge another ecot-blast this time from tucker as Sam reloaded. "I think I'll just advance in the opposite direction!" He then quickly turned tail and flew intangibly through the nearest wall.

That had certainly been an exciting start to the day. At least it could not get much worse.

As it was, that day specifically did not have anything else go wrong. He had not managed to find Jazz to ask for the book back but he still didn't get into anymore fights. Danny was a bit lost on what to do with the Lunch Lady though. She wasn't on Walker's list of missing prisoners and f he just let her out in the Ghost Zone she would just get out again, and the ghost hunters could be the ones to find her this time.

Eventually he came up with a good idea that would keep everyone happy.

"A Lunch Lady?" Walker asked with disbelief evident in his voice.

"I don't want to just let her lose but I don't know your rules like you do so I can't say she did anything wrong." Danny explained. "So if she starts working in the lunchroom here she would be able to keep her obsession in check and she won't be able to bother anyone else."

"That… is actually a not half bad idea." Walker admitted reluctantly.

"Thanks." Danny said honestly, it wasn't everyday that someone told him one of his ideas was not a bad one.

"But I still don't like you." Walker glared at him, "Don't get a swelled head punk."

"Of course." Dann groaned and facepalmed. Some fights he just couldn't win.

It should be noted however that while the day had not become any worse, the rest of the week had begun rolling downhill at the speed of a rocket propelled boulder.

* * *

 _Wednesday..._

This had started two days later when Danny had returned to Casper High, only to find things in a much different state than during his last visit. Specifically, a much more… depressing state than his last visit.

Seriously, like really, _really,_ depressing.

The entire student body seemed to be completely out of it. They all were slouched and miserable, which honestly was not too abnormal for teenagers, but he had never seen an entire teenage population act that way. Had humans' suddenly gained an obsession of being absolutely miserable and depressed?

Danny went invisible and intangible and slipped through the halls, listening into the few and in between conversations that were taking place.

"My beauty is only skin deep."

"I'm hitting my peak now, when I'm in the real world the nerds I pick on will be my bosses."

"I rely on my parents for every aspect of my life and will end up living in their basement as an adult."

"Life is meaningless, someday we'll all be long dead and forgotten as humanity marches onto its inevitable end."

Jeez, just listening into this stuff was making Danny feel kind of depressed. Nothing in particular affected him personally, especially the dead thing considering he was already such and still around, but the tone and words were still just oozing misery.

But what could be causing this? It wasn't like there was a ghost that caused people to feel like this!

Wait a second…

Before Danny could continue that line of thought he found himself looking at a poster. A rather _concerning_ poster.

 **Tired of ghosts messing up your education?**

 **Want to earn extra credit in Phys. Ed.?**

 **Join the GHOSKATEERS!**

 **Learn how to properly defend yourself against evil ghosts!**

 **Make new friends!**

 **Learn how to shoot lasers!**

 **(For more information speak to Coach Teslaff or call Fentonworks)**

Danny felt like slamming his head into the wall. Repeatedly.

Why was this a thing? What on earth had encouraged the School's staff to go along with this "Ghost Hunting Club" the Fenton's had thought up? How could this ever be considered a good idea?

(Danny would never know it but the idea had been in the process of being pressed by the Fentons but the school board had refused to go along with it. His fight with the Lunch Lady Ghost however finally caused the school to cave into the Fenton's suggestion. Oops.)

Phantom finally shakes his head and turned away. He was in the process of thinking about something important a little while ago. What was it again?

Any further thought was (once again) cut off. This time by a rather mobile source that, while not bothering Danny in particular, was still mucking about where it should not be. This source was an annoying Shadow type cored ghost, named Bertrand. A ghost that Danny wanted to payback for their last fight, and this time the tables were turned.

Bertrand was not in any specific form. Instead he was just flying about in his default shape zipping through hallways over the heads of the depressed teens. Danny took off after him, dropping the intangibility but staying invisibly.

Something irked him at the back of his mind but he ignored it for the time being focusing solely on Bertrand.

When Bertrand eventually flew into an empty part of the school Danny sped up.

"Hey dark and creepy!" He called getting the other ghost to pause and look around with glowing red eyes. He allowed himself to fade into visibility. He began charging an ecto-blast so that when Bertrand finally spotted him the ghost's eyes widened considerably.

"Remember me?" He asked cockily and chucked the blast at him.

The attack connected and propelled Bertrand into a cluster of lockers producing a teeth gritting combination of shearing metal and crashing.

Danny could have just pulled out his thermos and sucked up the other ghost at this point but he was feeling a bit stressed right now and he had the perfect opportunity to relieve that by beating up Bertrand.

"You think you're so tough don't you?" Bertrand called before a massive green elephant burst from the wreckage and proceeded to charge at Danny.

Maybe he should have used the thermos when he had the chance…

The elephant crashed into him and thankfully went intangible before they hit the wall so they didn't deal any damage to it. That's not to say no damage was done to Danny, being crashed into by an elephant hurt quite a lot.

An instant later and they were outside the school and still going. Only now instead of being on the ground and intangible they were floating and very solid. The school soon faded into a spec as Bertrand flew them at breakneck speeds away. Danny tried to get away but with the force being applied to him he might as well have been a toddler trying to lift a boulder.

Danny was not even able to try and escape for long before they crashed into a building, this time being very solid. Rubble collapsed on top of them and Danny felt Bertrand shift out of elephant form and into something much smaller. Suddenly the pressure on his chest from the shadow cored ghost disappeared and Danny felt a moment of panic. He quickly went intangible and flew back out of the rubble and into the air looking around desperately for the other ghost.

Unfortunately it appeared that Bertrand was either long gone, or had simply turned invisible and flew away. He really needed a way to track down these ghosts instead of stumbling along blindly in the dark, so to speak. For now though, Danny just sighed and flew back towards his haunt and by proxy his lair, he'd head back to the school tomorow to try and find Jazz again, he could just go to the Fenton household but, well, Ghost Hunters. Why take a chance?

But as he flew back one question kept coming back to the forefront of his mind.

Why was Bertrand at the high school?

* * *

 _Thursday..._

The next day Danny once again found himself sneaking around Casper High and slinking in between depressed teenagers. The way everyone was acting he was not even sure if he wanted to find Jazz and see her like this.

Fortune smiled upon him today however, as he finally found Jazz _and_ she wasn't depressed like everyone else.

"Psst, Jazz!" Danny tried to get her attention as she went through her locker.

She looked up and around rather confused. "Huh, who's there?"

Danny allowed himself to shift into the visible spectrum after assuring himself that no one else was hanging around where they might see something that they should not.

"Phantom?" Jazz asked sounding reasonably surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"You remember that book I loaned you? I kinda need it back before its rightful owner is out for my ectoplasm." He explained his reason for coming to her.

"Well I don't have it with me, it's at home in my room. Under my bed. In a locked box. Which is in a mini safe." Jazz sounded a bit sheepish of all the security measures. Danny's eyes widened quite a bit at hearing all that.

"Jeez, you really weren't kidding about keeping it safe while you had it." Danny joked, though he was curious why she went so far.

"It wasn't that exactly, it's that the book is made of ectoplasm and my parents have a bunch of devices for picking up on that stuff. Just imagine what they would do if they were to find it?!" Jazz both explained and exclaimed why she put the book under such tight lock and key.

"I'd rather not imagine that, thank you." Danny decided after a moment of thought.

"Exactly!" Jazz said as she pulled the books she needed out of her locker and slammed it shut. "Look I have to get to class but I'll bring it in tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure." Danny agreed, having no qualms with that. Then a thought occurred to him before either of them had a chance to leave. "Hey what's going on with everyone?" He questioned.

"What do you mean?" She answered with a question of her own.

"You know, why is everyone all… depressed and stuff?" He clarified.

"Probably just the stress of being a teenager going through high school in today's world and economy you know I read a very interesting article about it by Jacob Rannock, he said-" Jazz started going into a long winded speech about the topic. Danny just stood there staring blankly feeling lost about the subject as he had almost no idea what any of the sources she was referencing meant.

It was in this moment that Danny remembered why Jazz had always been his annoying know-it-all sister.

"-antom? Phantom!?" He was brought back to reality by Jazz snapping her fingers in his face.

""Huh? What?" He sapped his head looking back and forth in surprise.

"Are you even listening to me?" She asked sounding both annoyed and amused.

"Honestly? I tried but you kind of just lost me somewhere in there." Danny admitted. "But are you sure this is normal? I've never seen this many kids act like this before."

"Says the dead kid." Jazz deadpanned at him.

"Okay that was just below the belt." Danny pouted somewhat childishly.

"Besides," Jazz went back to the topic, "it's up to me to cheer them up! This is School Spirit week!" She pointed to a nearby poster. "I'm giving a speech tomorrow!"

"Neat." Danny admitted but he wasn't all that interested.

"Anyway, I'll bring the book in tomorrow, if you can't get to me then I'll bring it monday too, just make sure to meet me when no one else is around. The last thing I need right now is for it to get back to my overprotective ghost hunter parents that I'm friends with a ghost." Jazz sounded annoyed but it was thankfully directed at her parents rather than at him.

"Okay as long as nothing comes up I should be able to see you. Bye Jazz." Danny waved and took to the air.

"See ya, now I gotta get to class!" She took off at a fast walk towards whatever class she had right now.

When both of them were gone a shadowy shape appeared near the wall and narrowed its glowing blood red eyes. It then took off towards the Counseling office leaving an empty hall behind.

 _Friday..._

The next day Danny found himself once again returning to Casper High School. Honestly it was like he was alive and had to go to school again. The only bright side was that he did not have to actually attend any classes. Well he could but that would probably either cause mass panic or be ignored given the current state of the student body.

He wanted to find Jazz fast. He had been nervous about entering the Ghost Zone for days now and the sooner he got Ghost Writer's book back, the better.

Danny decided to check the auditorium first and move on from there.

When he arrived people were already filing into their seats, still looking miserable. Darn, that meant he would have to wait until after the speech in order to see Jazz about the book. Maybe he should listen in and then find her afterwards. So he stretched out and floated with his arms behind his head, letting his eyes wander around the room.

He noticed a series of weird looking lights pointed at the podium on the stage. Normally he wouldn't have payed too much attention to them but they felt almost… familiar. Invisibly he floated up to one and took the time to inspect it.

The "light" was a lot more high tech than any stage light had any right to be. In fact it didn't even look like a stage light, more like some sort of futuristic laser. But that was just silly. He noted there was a name on the side of the device. For a company called Dalv Co., what a weird name.

Danny then was struck with what was familiar about them. It wasn't the shape or appearance, it was the power source. All ghosts felt a natural pull towards potent ectoplasm and these things must be packed full of the stuff. So they really were some sort of laser then, but why were they pointed at the stage.

Danny was stopped from thinking anymore on the subject when he felt something grab his legs.

He barely had time to stutter, "W-what?" Before he was hurled away from the lights and towards the auditorium wall. He had enough sense left to turn himself intangible just before he crashed into it allowing him to go sailing through harmlessly.

Phantom caught himself in midair and allowed his invisibility and intangibility to drop and he glared around. He was in the middle of an intersection of hallways, a part of his mind said, the perfect spot for an ambush, but he was not going to turn tail and run until he found out what those lasers were for.

"Okay then, what's the big idea?" He called out to the seemingly empty halls of the High School.

"Oh not to big." A female voice responded. "Simply make all the little kiddies miserable and feed on it to maintain and increase my powers."

Danny turned and came face to face with a young women. She was quite pretty but in an almost cruel way. Her hair was red and her eyes slightly slanted. The eyes especially held a cruel look in them. She stood there almost mockingly.

"Do I know you?" Danny questioned, she seemed familiar but he could not put his finger on it.

"Oh." She glanced down at herself feigning surprise. "I suppose this form does make it difficult to recognize me. Seeing as you won't be around long I guess I'll treat you to my real form."

The human appearance seemed to melt away leaving a shadowy shape with red eyes and sharp teeth.

"Spectra." Danny growled her name with as much venom laced into his voice as he could manage and started reaching for his thermos.

"Is not your concern right now." Another voice called, this one male. Something slammed into him and he found himself on the ground with a tiger on his chest pinning him there. Phantom struggled under the weight but couldn't move.

"Bertrand." Danny grunted as he narrowed his eyes at the shape shifting ghost. "What is it with you and tigers?"

"I am whatever my Mistress needs me to be." Bertrand said loyally.

"He's a good little minion isn't he?" Spectra mused as she smirked down at Danny. "You've been quite annoying Phantom, constantly showing up here. I think I'll be getting rid of you now rather than give you a chance to try and avenge your human friend."

"What? Avenge?" Danny asked feeling quite out of the loop.

"Oh you really don't know. I wasn't sure if you did or not." Spectra noted looking a small bit surprised.

"It's you!" Danny said in a moment of clarity. "You're the one making the teenagers here miserable!"

"Ah so you're not just all brawn, you have a tiny bit of brain in there don't you?" Spectra snickered with amusement.

"But why bring Jazz into it?" He glared at the mastermind, ignoring the minion, "What's she got to do with your plan?"

"It isn't obvious?" Spectra asked with real surprise. "She's the only student in the school with any positive emotions left. If I were to eliminate her in front of the entire school just imagine how deliciously miserable that will make everyone!" her eyes blazed with anticipation.

"I am honestly surprised she's doing so well but considering her chosen field of study it's not too surprising she's kept herself emotionally healthy even with the death of her brother. What was his name again? Darry? Doesn't really matter." She shrugged and Danny glared harder.

"Shut up." He ground out at her.

"I mean the boys few friends were almost too easy to make miserable, pathetic really. I think there names were Adam and Patrick?" Spectra questioned nobody.

"Sam and Tucker!" Danny snapped at her and Bertrand shifted on his chest to hold his arms down properly.

"Why are you getting so upset by this it's not like you… oh." Her eyes went wide and Danny had had enough of this.

"SHUT UP!" He roared and flashed green with power sending Bertrand flying into the ceiling, knocking down lights and causing a chain reaction that shut off the lighting in that part of the hallway so the only source of light was the blazing green around Danny.

"You're her brother aren't you?" Spectra asked quietly. "It fits, you appeared around the time he died, you've tried to maintain a relationship with her. You haven't taken out the ghost hunters like any ghost of your caliber would in your place. Even your name is a hint!"

"Danny Phantom, Danny _Fenton_!" She cackled in glee just thinking about it, if only she could feed off the misery he must feel of watching his still living loved ones slowly but surely move on with their lives!

A loud gasp was heard and Danny and Spectra both looked towards the source. Both pairs of eyes went wide.

Standing there, startled and confused eyes locked on Danny Phantom, was Jasmine Fenton.

* * *

 **FINALLY!**

 **YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I'VE BEEN SETTING THIS UP FOR!**

 **Actually you do. It was since chapter eight.**

 **Also cliffhanger. Hah! Next time we'll see how all this plays out.**

 **Anyway… Reviews!**

 **Kimera20: Glad you enjoyed it!**

 **Natzi Sunbitch: Yes, no fudge.**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: Honestly the nightmare was a last minute addition that popped into my head and sounded hilarious, glad you liked it.**

 **Fantasyconnect: No that is not what he looks like (though I think we talked about this back in November?)**

 **ImpudentMiscegenation: Glad you liked the PP cameo! **

**Bleached Raven: People seem to really like the ending with Jack…**

 **PheonixWarriorFox88: You would be correct in that assumption!**

 **GoldTestament: I'll go over your reviews in order.**

 **1\. The Fright Knight has a certain degree of command over Pariah's armies, the reason he serves Pariah and later Vlad is because he is a knight and a knight is sworn to his lord.**

 **2\. Yes Youngblood was yes actually and by now you've seen Walker.**

 **3\. You're not wrong. But Future Box Ghost is badass.**

 **4\. Be patient and you'll eventually see just how they react.**

 **5\. Ya know Jazz will probably love Cujo and now I need to introduce the two at some point.**

 **5\. Thanks I thought it was a fitting end to Danny and Skulkers' first battle.**

 **6\. Yeah I might have taken that a bit too far…**

 **Draco7347: After a very long wait here is a new chapter!**

 **Now before I close off I want to say something.**

 **Thank you.**

 **Really and truly thank you. All of you.**

 **One year ago, today, I posted the first chapter of this story. I was still new to the writing and this was my second story. Since then I feel like I have come a long way but I still have more room to grow. Just comparing my original chapter one of Son Siblings to chapter one of Village Idiots or chapter one of Master Thief I can see massive improvement.**

 **So to everyone who has stuck around this long, thanks for the support.**

 **See ya guys next time.**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	21. Revelations: Part Two

**Well this came out a lot faster didn't it? It was only a month and a couple of days!**

 **Yeah after the last chapter I started getting back into this story and banging out some future details. This chapter will wrap up our little cliffhanger from last time and next chapter I will finally get to introducing some of the first OCs I received!**

 **I'm sure some of you are wondering what took me so long with the last chapter.**

 **Truth is I looked at everything I had already written and looked ahead to all I have planned and got a tad depressed and quite frankly I'm still not sure I'll ever be able to finish this to the degree I want it to be.**

 **But I'll be damned if I don't try my hardest.**

 **(Also I discovered the Naruto fandom. Oops.)**

 **It could be argued differently but that's how it comes off to me.**

 **Anyway, last time this stuff happened!**

 **-Time and Death had a chat!**

 **-Danny had a (kinda) bad week!**

 **-Spectra and Bertrand attacked Danny!**

 **-Jazz found out Phantom was/is her brother! (would it be past or present tense?)**

 **What will happen now? How will Jazz react? What about Bertrand and Spectra? Find out now, on Dragon Ball Z!**

 **I mean Gone Ghost.**

 **That is what I meant.**

* * *

 _Danny POV, Casper High…_

Clockwork must have been messing with him because time seemed to stand still.

Spectra was floating in her real form, all shadowy with searing red eyes and shark-like teeth. Bertrand had shifted back to his own real form and was attempting to pull himself out of the rubble that had collapsed on him after Danny had blasted him into the ceiling. The lights had gone out after Bertrand had crashed into the wiring but some of them were still flickering on and off.

And then there was Jazz. Whom was staring at him. A maelstrom of unidentifiable emotions in her eyes.

She knew.

Oh crap she knew.

Danny felt the power high he had been on when he blasted Bertrand start fading away. This was so not the time for this kind of thing to happen. In fact never would be a good time. He had not wanted to tell Jazz or anyone really. He needed to move on as much as they did. He was a ghost, he would be around for who knows how long. His family on the other hand, would eventually grow old and die. But he would remain.

Unfortunately fate seemed to have other plans.

"Oh this is just perfect!" Spectra cut into his inner turmoil and Danny glared at her. She ignored him however and kept talking. "Finally I can feel some misery from you." She cooed at Jazz. "I might now even need to kill you, I can just let the rest of the school see you being miserable! I'll never have to leave this town for power ever again!"

Danny felt his weakening power surge blaze back into a roaring ectoplasmic flame.

Spectra opened her mouth to say something else but he slammed his fist into the side of her head before a word could come out. Her body felt strange, almost fluid, but it was still solid enough for him to pummel.

"I have heard just about enough out of you." Danny hissed at her and spun in midair, slamming his heel into her torso and propelling her down the hall at an alarming rate. He was tempted to look back at Jazz but was quite honestly scared of what he would see.

He whipped out his ice sword and flew at Spectra intent on plunging the frozen blade through her head. The other ghost had managed to regain her senses and managed to turn intangible and sink through the floor just before he reached her, causing the sword to rip through nothing but air.

Danny cursed and whirled around trying to locate her. This was so not his day.

"Well aren't we the tough one?" A taunting voice called out to him. He spun trying to locate the source but saw no sign of the cruel psychiatrist, Spectra must have been invisible, but how could he spot her?

"Leaping to Jazzy's defense, how brave of you! Of course are you really leaping to her defense?" Spectra asked with a condescending tone. "Even if she was your sister when you were alive, what is she to you now? The daughter of ghost hunters, that's what."

Danny suddenly twisted and blasted where he thought the voice was coming from. All he got for his trouble was a sizzling sound and the acrid scent of burning metal. Dammit, where was she?

"Then again maybe you're too childish to allow yourself to move on. Pathetic really." The taunting continued and Danny tried his best to ignore it, he stayed floating in the air trying to feel for any hints of where Spectra might be. The way her voice was echoing made it impossible via sound, smell was out too because of the burning metal, of course he also wasn't sure if Spectra even had a smell.

If only there was some way…

Wait a second, ectoplasm! It was nearly impossible for one ghost to track another using their natural pull towards ectoplasm, but considering the close proximity and that Danny knew what he was looking for...

The voice continued on trying to play on all his suppressed emotions on the subject of his still living family and friends but he forced himself to avoid the words. Some still stuck in his head though.

"...nothing but a monster to them…"

"...let you die…"

"Why do you care?"

THERE!

"Because I'd rather care than be like you!" Danny hurled his ice sword through the air with as much strength as he could muster into the throw. It spun end over end towards a small indent in the wall where a water fountain was located…

...and impaled the drinking fountain.

"Ha, you can't even hit me!" Spectra cackled mockingly. The damaged water fountain started spraying water into the air.

Danny smirked and fired the ectoblast that he had been charging from the moment he threw his sword. Spectra had been cocky enough not to go intangible so when his sword hit the fountain and caused the pipe to burst the water had landed on her as well. So although he technically still could not see her, a bunch of water floating in the air looked kind of weird.

It also made a good target.

Spectra shrieked in pain as the blast collided with her unexpectedly sending her into the wall causing crack to spiderweb around her. Danny did not give her a chance to recover and immediately rushed her fully intent on crashing her through the wall and into the room on the opposite side.

It was not to be however, he had been so focused on locating Spectra he had failed to notice that Bertrand had recovered and had transformed once again.

He certainly noticed when the several ton green elephant slammed into his him when he was was just a few feet away from Spectra. How Bertrand had managed to increase his mass and weight Danny had no clue. He just knew that he really, really hated ghosts that could transform.

Bertrand propelled the two of them down hall with Danny wrapped around his trunk holding on for dear afterlife.

"WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS?" He shouted at the other ghost as he felt the hallway practically rush past them. He was still a metaphorically sore about when Bertrand did something remarkably similar while transformed into a rhino.

Bertrand didn't respond but a quick look revealed that the end of the hallways was rapidly approaching. Which meant one of two things.

One: Bertrand was going to slam both of them into the wall putting both of them out of the fight for some time and leaving Jazz at Spectra's mercy.

Two: He was going to go intangible and fly them away from the school leaving Jazz at Spectra's mercy.

Neither were favorable endings.

Danny let the cold wash over him once again and a blue aura surrounded his body and slowly began creeping up Bertrand's trunk. The parts where it touched were almost instantly frozen in blue ectoplasmic ice.

As soon as he noticed what was happening Bertrand skidded to a stop and tried shaking Danny off of him but by that point it was too late.

The ice finished its work in less than thirty seconds, a record Danny was quite pleased with. He would have to remember that the next time tried freezing another ghost. He smirked as he watched Bertrand shrink down inside of the ice block and try and escape but to no success. He wasn't trapped in a thermos but this was good enough for now.

That just left Spectra to deal with then…

Okay so Bertrand could transform into virtually anything, what could Spectra do? The basic ghost powers of course, drain people's positive emotions, transform into a woman that look human even if she had a vaguely evil appearance, and, and…

That was it.

That was everything he knew Spectra was capable of.

Hopefully that _was_ all she was capable of.

Sadly he did not have time to see if he could find any specifics about her powers that her file didn't mention already. Nor did he have the time to go and get some help from Ember or Youngblood. This had to be dealt with now, before anyone got hurt or died.

He turned away from the quickly growing desperate Bertrand and flew back down the hallway top speed. His vision started to tunnel as the walls, floor and ceiling blurred together into just a mass of color, nothing more than a distraction as he rushed towards his goal.

That goal being the, now recovered, dark form that was Spectra as she turned her attention to the still confused and in shock Jazz.

* * *

 _Jazz POV, Same Time..._

"Come on dear, let's get you back to the auditorium now!" Spectra urged the stunned Jazz who shook herself out of her stupor at the ghost's prompting and glare at her.

"I'm not going _anywhere_ with you. I heard everything, and I'm not about to walk up on stage just to get blasted by _lasers_ of all things, to complete your evil plan." Jazz slapped the stunned Spectra's hand away from her. "You're very existence is an insult to psychiatrists everywhere! You're supposed to help people, not make them more miserable."

"You'd be surprised actually," Spectra mused, "There are many situations in which psyche degrees have helped make people miserable in the name of scientific discovery."

"And just what are you working on discovering?" Jazz deadpanned at her tapping her foot and crossing her arms presenting a rather annoyed aura around herself. "More power?"

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that but…" Spectra seemed to think about it for a moment. "Huh, what do you know I would put it like that." She blinked in slight surprise at herself.

During her brief moment of self examination Jazz had quickly whirled and attempted to make a break for it, attempting a mad dash down the hallway towards the nearest exit.

It was not to be however as Spectra was distracted for scarcely a moment and quickly made a move to block her prey's attempted escape to the outside and more than likely attempt to get help from the local ghost hunters, in other words her parents.

"And just where do you think you are going? You have a rally to attend!" Spectra gave her a smile that was all teeth.

Perhaps she really should have payed attention to her overly concerned parents when they insisted that she bring an assortment of ghost fighting/hunting devices to school each day in case of an emergency. Note to self; convince her parents to teach her how to fight properly, no way was she going to be a damsel in distress waiting for someone to save her.

"BACK OFF" Phantom sped down the hallway like a bullet, crashed in Spectra and propelled the both of them away.

Yeah, just like that. She briefly wondered if any of the princesses from fairy tales felt annoyed that they weren't able to save themselves. At least it wouldn't be like that for long, her dad could be very enthusiastic about his profession so if she showed any interest at all he would put forth as much effort as it took to make her proficient in defending herself against ectoplasmic threats.

And then there was the crux of the whole situation. Phantom was Danny. Or Danny was Fenton. Actually the best way to put it was Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton. Well, at least he had been when he was alive.

Had he known the whole time? Did he care? Or was this whole situation just as much news to him as it was to her?

It was certainly a possibility. He may have just been gravitating towards her subconsciously as a connection to the life he could barely remember, it seemed a bit animalistic but she was still working out how the mind of a ghost _actually_ worked, rather than the stuff her parents force fed everyone.

Then again maybe he did know. In her past conversations with him he had hinted at the fact he remembered at least some of his human life before dying. Maybe he remembered her and wanted to have some sort of relationship with her despite the fact he was no longer among the living.

Of course she was being rather positive about the whole situation. Her parents were _ghost hunters_. As in the people who hunted Phantom and others like him. It could be he was just trying to get close to her so he could get rid of her parents.

But despite this possibility she didn't really believe it to be truth. He had never come off as the manipulative type to her, and Danny had never been that good an actor or a liar. She doubted death would have improved his skills in such. Besides, her parents had come back dejected multiple times after going after him or run into him while hunting other ghosts. If he was going to deal with them in a more permanent fashion, he probably would have done it already.

And she still couldn't get the expression that had flashed across his face when he had gotten over the surprise of seeing her. She may have been slightly (read: extremely) shocked when she had heard Spectra make the connection and Danny's reaction thereof, but she had been able to recognize what was going on around her. But the expression on his face had been a simple one. One she had never expected to see from him looking at her, Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom.

Fear.

He had been scared of her. Or more likely, scared of the idea of her knowing who he was. But why? Why was he scared of her knowing who he was? If it didn't cause he so much confliction she would have laughed at the irony. A ghost scared of a human, what were the odds?

Jazz shook herself as an ectoblast soared past her. She quickly moved into the cover provided by a row of lockers that extended from the wall. It wasn't exactly a shield like from Star Wars or Star Trek (What? It was fun to psychoanalyze characters in a futuristic setting!) but it was better than standing out in the open. She slowly risked peeking an eye around the edge of the lockers so she could see what was happening with the fight between the two ghosts.

The two were tussling in midair. From where her point of view it looked like Phan- _Danny_ , she reminded herself, was attempting to pin Spectra who literally kept slipping through his fingers. Everytime he tried to grab an arm or even her tail she would just slither out, just like a venomous snake from under a rock. A fitting analogy if there was one for the cruel ghost.

As Jazz watched the fight progress she felt as though she were on the edge of her seat. From where she stood it looked like neither ghost had the advantage. Each would occasionally land blows on the other, Spectra with her deadly clawlike hands and Danny with his ectoplasm blazing fists but they all appeared to be glancing strikes.

She barely kept herself from crying out as Danny kicked the side of Spectra's head and then fired an ectoblast towards her facial features. Spectra barely managed to slide out of the way of the blast, letting it graze her face and for it to go flying right past where Jazz was standing. She quickly ducked back behind the lockers and took a few deep breaths.

She glanced at the spot the blast had hit. A small scorched and smoking hole sat in the middle of the tiled hallway. If it could do that to the floor, she did not want to think about what it could do to a human being.

Jazz waited a moment before looking around the corner again. When she did so she wished that she hadn't. She had turned just in time to watch Spectra's tail snake up and wrap around Danny's neck. His hands immediately went to try prying it off but Spectra only cackled with glee at his dilemma.

"What's wrong little Phantom? Nothing more out that smart mouth of yours?" She taunted as she raked her claws across his chest causing him to make a gasping noise that came out as more of a rasp than anything else. Ectoplasm began dripping from the five gashes and onto the floor.

Jazz had cried out when Spectra had scratched Danny, she couldn't help it. Thankfully the female ghost was too busy gloating to notice but Danny had heard her. His gaze met hers and she wished she could identify the expression that flashed behind the glowing green eyes. Still being unable to talk he just mouthed "run" at her.

She didn't need to be told twice.

It was one thing seeing her ghost friend who she new could take a beating get scratched. It was something else to see Danny, who could never take a blow, have bladelike claws rip his chest open. Her mind kept converting snow white hair to obsidian black. Radioactive green eyes to icy blue.

She ignored the small voice in her head telling her to look back. This was because she knew she didn't want to see what was happening. She didn't want to see if Spectra was chasing her, or if she had continued to rip into Danny's ectoplasm.

She didn't want to know.

It was however unfortunate for her that she happened to run into Mr. Lancer as she made her escape run.

"A rose by any other name!" He exclaimed as she nearly "There you are Miss Fenton!"

"Mr Lancer!" Jazz gasped still feeling somewhat shellshocked.

"Quickly! We must get to the rally!" He grabbed her arm and led her away towards the auditorium.

Jazz kept trying to form words but was having quite a lot of trouble putting order to her typhoon of thoughts and emotions.

She could only hope the lasers pointed at the podium were remote activated and not automatic.

* * *

 _Danny POV, that same time…_

Danny wouldn't really describe himself as an optimist. In fact in most situations he was a pessimist.

This was one of those situations.

He was currently being ranted at by Spectra being told just how pathetic he was and what about himself made him that pathetic. While she was doing this she was slowly constricting her spectral tail tighter and tighter, completely cutting off his vocal cords so he could not get a word in edgewise. Not to mention the fact that the wounds on his chest from her claws were not exactly comfortable.

Literally the only thing that could make it worse was that if when Jazz had run and turned a corner she had run into a teacher who made her come to the auditorium so she could give her speech at the rally.

Good thing that didn't happen!

(Later on he would be punching himself for this thought.)

So how to get out of this situation? Spectra was gloating and ranting so that gave him a couple of minutes, at the very least forty five seconds, to get out of this and put himself back on top of this fight.

He continued to try and pull her tail off when he felt like smacking himself. He closed his eyes and began letting the cold wash over him…

...only to be suddenly thrown in a row of lockers, the sound of ripping metal followed and he idly noticed as a few school supplies bounced off his head and fell to the ground now frozen solid b his icy aura. Huh. That normally didn't happen when he tried to freeze someone.

"Did you actually think I was going to sit there and let you freeze me?" Spectra asked with a deadpan.

"Honestly? Yeah I kind of did. That's how it worked with everyone else I used it on." Danny admitted somewhat sheepishly.

"In that case, I shudder to imagine the average IQ of the Ghost Zone." Spectra shook her head with shame at her kind. Not that she could be entirely blamed for reacting like this, healthily maintaining an obsession required quite a lot of mental fortitude, which the majority of the ghosts in the Zone did not have. This led to more than a few completely losing themselves to their obsessions until not much else mattered.

Danny constantly reminded himself not to let that happen to him.

For now though he had other problems to deal with. Like this damned bitch. He usually shied away from such language but honestly he could not come up for a better word for this ghost. She purposely made everyone around her miserable to gain power and more than that she took _joy_ out of doing that. What kind of horrible entity enjoyed making people so miserable? Tease someone, annoy them, piss them off, fine. But bring to it to the level where anyone might actively consider suicide? That was crossing a line.

Danny had to hold back a groan as he began feeling tired. He recalled what happened during his fight with Skulker, he had tossed way too much energy around and that had left him weak. And now if things continued a similar thing was about to occur here in the _human_ world where a constant flow of ectoplasm wasn't around to keep him in physical form.

He fired off an ice blast towards Spectra, hoping to catch her by surprise. He had just remembered what that lmp in cloak was and he needed to keep her from noticing his left hand subtly moving towards it.

"Honestly just look at you." Spectra said with a mocking tone. "You're pathetic really. A basically newborn ghost with a big special ice core and you think you can take on all the big bads of our world." She chuckled.

Danny's hand wrapped around the cylindrical device under his cloak but he kept his expression neutral.

"Tell you what." Spectra tutted at him. "How about you pick up your little toy over there." She gestured at his ice sword. "And just go home and play hero somewhere else. It's not like you're doing any good." She turned back towards him and her eyes went wide.

Danny smirked at the expression on her face. "You talk _way_ too much." He told her simply and clicked the button on the Fenton Thermos.

"No, no, no, no, nooooooooo!" Spectra shrieked as she desperately tried to avoid the swirling vacuum vortex of the ghost containment device. Her efforts were to no avail though as she was quickly enough sucked inside. Danny put the cover on with a click and sighed in relief. "So do us all a favor and just shut up." He said more to himself than anything else.

Well that was one problem dealt with. At least he would never have to deal with Spectra again. She was going back to Walker, who he was planning on literally begging to lock her up in maximum security, never to see the green light of the Ghost Zone ever again.

There was still Bertrand of course but he was currently trapped in his own personal Ice Prison, and it wasn't like the local ghost hunters had anyway of breaking through that ice and letting Bertrand escape. So he could afford to leave him trapped there for awhile.

He pushed himself out of the mass of wrecked lockers and looked up and down the hallway. Damn this whole place was a freaking mess. The lights were either out or flickering, there were multiple holes and scorch marks from ecto blasts. Not to mention the piles of rubble where Bertrand, Spectra and himself had crashed into things. Also the ice statue that used to be a water fountain. Apparently his ice was cold enough to freeze normal water. He briefly wondered what exactly his ice was made of. Maybe he could go ask Frostbite later.

He walked gingerly, not wanting to risk expending even the miniscule energy to fly, towards his sword. With a heave he yanked it out of the destroyed fountain and braced himself. But thankfully the entire pipe seemed to be frozen so he didn't suddenly receive a faceful of water. Danny sheathed the blade and turned away from the mess.

Now he had to go find Jazz. He owed her an explanation or two.

* * *

 _Jazz POV, a few minutes later…_

As it turned out the lasers were on an automatic timer. Thankfully they had been timed with the idea of her perfect punctuality. Therefore they went off before she even arrived, this had of course caused chaos but she and Mr. Lancer had insisted that this had been part of the plan and nothing was wrong. Even though Lancer had no idea what it was about Jazz had just told him she would explain later.

Therefore the rally went off without a hitch and people actually seemed more cheerful by the time it was over. So all in all, it had turned out pretty good. The fact people seemed less depressed afterwards left Jazz hoping that it meant Danny had beaten Spectra. So she wasn't too surprised that when she went backstage after the rally Danny was leaning against the wall looking at odds with himself. The gashes on his chest were gone at least but he looked tired. That was a first.

"Hey…" He said looking like he was unsure what to say. Not that she could blame him. She was kind of at a loss for words herself.

"Hi…" She responded feeling quite awkward.

"For the record, when we first met I didn't know who you were. You seemed familiar but I shrugged it off at the time." He explained to her.

"And after that?" She prompted wondering what had driven him to seek a friendship with her.

"For the record I remember bits and pieces. Not everything. I remember faces and places but not many events and the ones I do are fragmented and confusing." He continued. "I remember you, Sam and Tuck… our parents." He shooked his head. "I had no idea what to make of it. A friend of mine suggested I just power through it and move on with my afterlife but I kept running into you and…"

"And I wasn't trying to rip you apart molecule by molecule." Jazz suggested only half jokingly.

"Yeah." Danny agreed. He paused and look straight at her. "Whatever you might think Jazz, I'm dead. I'm not coming back. I don't have DNA anymore I can't be your brother."

"Do I look like I care much?" She said sitting in a spare seat near the wall. "We might not technically be related but you're here. There's nothing to come back from, you might not be Danny Fenton anymore but you're still Danny. So maybe I can't be your sister." Those word hurt to say but they needed to be said. "But I can still be here for you."

Danny gave a small, sad smile. "Thanks Jazz."

They sat in companionable silence for a minute. "So what happened to Spectra?" Jazz finally asked.

"Trapped her in the thermos, I am making sure she goes to maximum security, she is never coming back if I can help it." He told her. "As for her partner in crime, he's still sitting in an ice cube in the hallway. I don't have the energy left to get him back to the Ghost Zone like that and I can't risk another fight with him."

"So you're just going to leave him there?" Jazz asked with surprise.

"I'll come get him as soon as I can but unless you have a better idea…" He trailed off.

"Fair enough." Jazz accepted with discontent.

"Miss Fenton?" She heard Mr. Lancer call for her. "Are you back here."

"You should probably go before someone starts screaming ghost." She warned him.

"I'm already gone." He winked at her and vanished before her eyes. Leaving her alone for the few seconds before Lancer came backstage.

"So about the lasers…"

* * *

 _Casper High, That night…_

"Is that you Phantom?" Bertrand called as he heard a sound in the shadows of the empty school building. It had been a pretty bad day. Scratch that it had been a horrible day. When people had seen him in the ice block there had been a lot of screaming and gawking. Not to mention what had happened to his Mistress.

How dare that punk defy her! He had no right to ruin her plans!

"Here to mock me I suppose?" He sighed angrily. "Or maybe bring me back to Walker. Actually knowing you it's probably both." He grunted as he formed a hand and rapped his knuckles against the glass like ice. "Can you at least let me out of the ice? It's freaking cold in here." He glanced at the silhouette now evident in the darkness.

"I can assure you." A voice with a british accent that seemed colder than his prison vibrated through the walls of ice. "I am not the little Phantom."

Bertrand felt his power seem to leak away as felt the sheer rage and delight start to literally emanate from this being causing the air around him to seem to shimmer like a mirage. He saw the red knives form in both the ghost's hands. He didn't need to introduce himself. Bertrand knew who this was. And what he was capable of.

"W-what are you doing here." Bertrand stuttered as he pressed himself against the opposite side of the ice block.

"Is it not obvious my annoying little friend." The ghost tilted his head up allowing red eyes to flash dangerously. "It's dinner time."

The Ripper leapt towards the frozen prison letting out a horrible, terrifying laugh.

* * *

 **And that's the end of chapter 21!**

 **I hope you all enjoyed finally seeing Jazz and Danny talk it out, as well as Spectra's defeat and another attack from the Ripper.**

 **I honestly am looking forward to having Danny and The Ripper meet, it's going to be a major plot point for the story as well as character development for not only Danny but some of the other characters too.**

 **Oh and I discovered that most friend groups have a dumb, smart, weird gimmick in their characters. One is smart, one is dumb, and one is weird. It applies to Danny Phantom too.**

 **Sam is the weird one.**

 **Danny is the dumb one.**

 **Tucker is the smart one.**

 **In this story I think Danny is the weird one, Ember is the smart one and Youngblood is the dumb one. Or maybe I have Danny and Ember reversed. Let me know what you think in the reviews!**

 **Speaking of reviews, let's do last chapters!**

 **BaconLover1800: Yeah these last two chapters are very dramatic.**

 **Dorothy Michaels: Cliffhanger concluded! Hopefully this was soon enough for you!**

 **AspiringAuthor236: He has potential for physical changes but if they do happen they won't be anytime soon, and I'm not going to copy Dan, he was a combination of Vlad and Danny's ghost forms.**

 **Wolfeather101: If you're dead just try and make your obsession reading. That should work out for you. That way you get to read this chapter anyway!**

 **Cassianaswindell123: Yeah that was a bit unfair to Jazz, getting wrapped up in this whole mess.**

 **TheDisneyFan365: Glad you thought it was interesting, as to your own OC he sounds interesting but the Conqueror doesn't really fall under OC rules. He's a legend providing an explanation for why inter-universal travel is banned other than "just cuz" **

**Yourlilimaxilove: I'm glad my writing can create such real reactions. And as long as the love is platonic, I gladly accept it.**

 **RandomBabbling: This chapter answers some of those questions. As to the Fenton parents, you're going to have to wait awhile.**

 **TenableCape9819: Cliffhangers are how to keep people reading ;P. And here's chapter 21!**

 **Lovepeaceandwar: Don't worry, Ember is going to get lots of character development. She already has gone through some, but it's not that easy for a ghost to run from their obsession so she has more in the future. As to being defeated too easily… yeah that might be true but I needed an excuse for Danny to get his ice powers and some memories back.**

 **Some one you dont mess with: That name really works with your review. Just saying. And I did update so you don't need to use the terror of trailed off threats against me.**

 **Lolxxx: I hate it when that happens. Too many stories where no one knows about Danny finally get to the reveal then get cut off. I decided not to do that. So I hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

 **Whelp that's all for now folks! I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you next saturday.**

 **If you read whatever story I update next week that is. But it will probably be Sealed Away or Lightman Legacy. Might do Master Thief though.**

 **(Awkwardly glances at folder labeled Son Siblings.)**

 **See ya folks!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	22. Dead Danny (OMAKE)

**Hello guys! The new chapter is on the way but it's not ready just yet and I didn't want to keep the fans of this story waiting despite the other posting today so I threw this together for your enjoyment!**

 **It's based off a specific scene from Monty Python's Flying Circus and is completely non-canon for this story so just feel free to sit back and laugh.**

 **Disclaimer (been awhile eh?): I don't own Danny Phantom, or Monty Python. Any other shows or otherwise referenced here are just cameo appearances.**

* * *

Vlad glared at the name on the sign of the store in the ghost zone. What a stupid name. "Fantastical FriTik's Fanfic Funporium!" Who in their right mind would name their place of business such a ridiculous thing?

Of course it wasn't like he could ignore the idiotic place considering why he was here. He felt the thermos clutched in his grasp shiver. "Oh, quiet you." he told it giving it a quick shake before he pushed the door open to float inside of the building.

He found himself surrounded by various books, devices, and other objects of interest. All very nice and whatnot but he had already seen it when he had first been inside twenty minutes earlier to make a purchase of his own. Nonetheless he allowed his eyes to wander yet again this time not searching for anything in particular as he had no incense to attempt to make another purchase from this place unless it was the correct one.

Sitting on the shelves were a series of strange objects. There was a small orange orb with four red stars sitting on a pillow, a strange computer-like device with the letters PET on the side, a strange headband with a metal plate in the middle that had some sort of spiral pattern on it. All very interesting yes, yes but nothing he particularly cared about.

He was quite surprised though when a dark haired human male wearing a t-shirt with a leather vest on top of it pushed past him as he stomped away from the register and towards the door.

The man was muttering under his breath as passed. "Damn one-eyed weirdos, damn sociopaths, DAMN ALTERNATE REALITIES!" He actually shouted that last one as he slammed the door behind him. What an odd man to run into in a place like this. Though the salesman was all the more strange.

He was not actually sure it was a man as the being or ghost standing behind the register was entirely light blue save for a strange orange eye and black pupil that stared at him with traces of mirth in it. Like the being found the whole situation quite amusing, which it was most certainly not, thank you very much!

"Hello there my fine fellow, is there something that I can help you with?" The being questioned him, the name tag identifying it as "FriTik", a strange name but there were odder names in the Ghost Zone and anyway that was besides the point.

"Yes, I would like to list a complaint." Vlad told the entity in no uncertain terms as he leaned over the cashier's desk to create a more intimidating aura around himself.

"What seems to be the problem?" FriTik asked with a hint of apathy in their voice. They seemed to be completely ignoring Vlad's attempts at intimidation.

"Not thirty minutes ago I purchased a thermos containing one "Danny Phantom" from this establishment." Vlad absent mindedly pointed the thermos away from him and pressed the button that freed Daniel so he was standing next to him. The pale boy gave himself a shake and smoothed his cloak out. "That was so not cool fruitloop."

"Ah… yes… the Danny Phantom, what seems to be the problem with him?" FriTik asked after inspecting Daniel for a good moment and apparently not seeing anything wrong. Which just increased Vlad's anger and frustration.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with him." Leaning in closer. "He's dead, that's what's wrong with him!" Vlad hissed narrowing his eyes. Daniel rolled his eyes and said "Duh" Causing Vlad away from the store owner to turn his glare upon the ghostly teenager.

"No, no he's not!" FriTik announced in protest to Vlad's statement. "He's just in ghost form, ya see? Halfa's got those too, ya know? He just needs to transform back." They elaborated.

"Oh! Why didn't I think of that." Vlad said with mock enthusiasm. "Daniel would you kindly transform back! Go on then don't be shy!"

"What are you two talking about! I'm a ghost! Not a ha- OW!" Daniel whined loudly when FriTik suddenly moved quickly and punched him hard in the arm

"See? He just did it!" FriTik eagerly described, their eye curving into a creepy U-shape that was vaguely resembling a smile. "He's clearly got nerve endings!"

"No he very well didn't!" Vlad snapped "You just punched him! That's not transforming! And ectoplasm sends energy signals that replicate pain when it's in distress."

"He's just in ghost form!" FriTik continued to insist despite all evidence to the contrary..

"Yes he's in ghost form, because he doesn't have a blasted human form to transform into!" Vlad shouted losing the last remains of his temper. This situation was very obnoxious and offsetting.

"Are you sure? He's probably just stunned!" FriTik asked putting hand to what would've been their chin and looking as though they were thinking about it. But it was rather hard to tell with the lack of proper facial features.

"Stunned?!" Vlad said aghast with disbelief.

"Just ignoring that I'm here right now then?" Daniel muttered under his breath. Teenagers! So rude and demanding. It was always all about them wasn't it?

"Yeah he did just get released from the thermos and all, it's not an easy ride in those things you know!" FriTik explained enthusiastically.

"I've just about had enough of this nonsense." Vlad announced. "This Daniel is definitely deceased and when I purchased him half an hour ago you assured me he was just in ghost form inside of the thermos he was contained in."

"Well... he's probably just… just tired of human form." FriTik deduced, still in complete denial.

"Tired of human form!?" Vlad barely held himself back from strangling the entity in front of him.

"Well yeah, with all those annoying rules, bones, and flesh and blood and all. Who wants to be bound by the laws of gravity? He's probably just pinin' for the skies!" FriTik explained gesturing exaggeratedly with their hands with their hands.

"He's not pinin', he's passed on!" Vlad snarled viciously. "This Daniel is no more! He has _ceased_ to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker!"

"Well, Mr. Hartman did say he was stopping by later." FriTik muttered thoughtfully as Vlad continued to rant.

"He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace!" Vlad continued.

"It's not all that peaceful." Daniel added helpfully but was ignored by both parties.

"If his soul hadn't lagged on the ectoplasm he'd be pushing up the daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He's kicked the bucket, e's shuffled off his mortal coil and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!" He paused his rant for but a moment at this.

Vlad then grabbed Daniel by the shoulder and forced him forward so FriTik could take a good look at him.

"THIS IS AN EX-DANNY!" He loudly finished using Daniel nickname to help sell his point home to this clearly insane being.

There was a pause of awkward silence as FriTik stared blankly at Daniel and the boy gave a little embarrassed wave to him.

"Well I'd better replace him then!" FriTik finally decided and turned around the counter to look around.

Vlad sighed with relief. "I swear to get anything done on this site you have to complain until you're blue in the face."

"But your face is always blue." Daniel pointed out. He was ignored once again.

"Sorry sir, I've had a look 'round the back of the shop and it seems we're fresh out of Danny Phantoms." FriTik told him and folded his hands on the counter in front of him.

"I see. I see, I get the picture." Vlad said making sure his displeasure was known.

FriTik studied him for a moment. "I got a blonde ninja kid who thinks he's a demon." he suggested.

"Well is it a halfa?" Vlad asked in a voice sweet as pie.

"Nnnnot really." FriTik admitted.

"WELL IT'S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?!" Vlad roared with anger. His haunting aura flared around him causing Daniel to shiver but FriTik seemed unmoved.

"Then I'm sorry sir I but got nothing for you. I'll tell you what, you could go looking through someone else's fanfics and see if you get Danny Phantom as your evil son/apprentice in one of their stories." FriTik suggested.

"No, no it's quite alright." Vlad sighed in defeat feeling spent. "You can just have him back, I suppose this is what I get for trying to take the easy way."

"In that case, have a good day sir and if you see Jake again on your way out could you send him back? Turns out I _did_ have the wormhole generator he was looking for." FriTik asked of him.

"Was that the young man who shoved past me the on his way out?' Vlad asked he sucked Daniel back into the thermos much to the boy's displeasure.

"Yeah he keeps popping up now and again. His boss wanted to see what would happen if he strapped a teleporter on him and shoved him into a wormhole. Now we know!" FriTik explained happily.

"Very well then, if I see him again I'll send him back this way." Vlad decided, just because he was unhappy didn't mean everyone had to be miserable about it. He was a businessman after all and knew when to be professional.

"Thank's a bunch and good luck with that whole killing your best friend and stealing his wife and son thing you got going." FriTik called as Vlad slammed the door behind him.

"So now what?" Danny's voice asked from the thermos on the counter.

"Now, _I_ try to figure out how I want to end the next chapter. You sit there until someone comes by and decides to purchase you." FriTik explained sounding somewhat annoyed. They picked up the thermos and walked over to a shelf, placing it gently beside the four-star orange ball.

"You can't just sell people!" Danny protested.

"I'm the author, I could make you dance naked in the streets if I wanted to." FriTik deadpanned before going back behind their desk and pulled out a laptop.

"Okay then, back to work."

* * *

 **Ah ha ha, what an amusing short that was!**

 **Anyway I'll have the actual chapter out by Monday night or sooner. I'll probably delete this when I do. Until then!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	23. Ghostkateers!

**Are you ready for the show boys and girls?**

 **To enter a world of pure fanon and OOC?**

 **Then you've come to the wrong place!**

 **Kind of, I keep most of canon and add a few fanon elements but I take great pains to keep everyone in character!**

 **So then, the big event I had set as a goal previously has happened! That leaves the second half of season one to write.**

 **A bit of explanation might be in order.**

 **The events from the beginning of the story to the final confrontation with the Ripper will consist of season one. Season two will have a lot more Vlad and a few other characters from the show. Season three is… well… spoilers.**

 **Speaking of actual shows. Can we discuss how just about every reboot completely annihilates what made the show good? Thank god Samurai Jack is just continuing rather than restarting. And the fact that adult swim isn't ruining the humor it's always had. Do not get me started on Teen Titans GO!, the new Ben 10 and the new Powerpuff Girls. I'm terrified of what will happen if Danny Phantom gets a reboot.**

 **So yeah, now that I've gotten my daily rant over with...**

 **Last time this neat stuff happened:**

 **-Danny fought Spectra and Bertrand**

 **-Danny won!**

 **-Jazz and Danny had a talk.**

 **-Bertrand got ended!**

 **Now then, new chapter, new subplot. Let's go!**

* * *

 _Jazz POV, Saturday November 27, Fenton Works…_

This was not how Jazz had expected nor wanted to spend her Saturday.

For once it wasn't about hanging around with her Ghost Hunter parents, for once she had actually _wanted_ to do that so she could learn how to properly defend herself, that fight with Spectra had been a real eye-opener for just how defenseless she was. She was not going to keep being the damsel in distress waiting for Danny or someone else to come and save her. She was taking things into her own hands.

So no, staying at home learning how to fight ghosts wasn't the problem. This time anyway.

The problem was there were a bunch of other kids from school who were there to learn how to fight ghosts too. Also Mr. Lancer was there but that wasn't really too important.

Jazz was willing to deal with people her own age at school but having them at home along with her semi-insane parents was another story altogether. Especially when half of them were there because they thought it would be "cool" to become ghost hunters like her parents. The other half were there for different reasons mostly extra credit in gym though. Honestly what kind of idiot came up with that idea? Risk bodily harm against supernatural beings to get a few extra points in gym class?

Although judging from the amount of kids here who were clearly out of shape, that seemingly inane idea was not entirely without merit. Though that still left Jazz questioning the sanity of their parents. Seriously who would trust their children with her own parents whose inventions were responsible for the death of their own son!

Huh, she apparently still had a lot of pent up rage towards her parents. She would have to work on dealing with that.

The fact that Danny, while not technically alive, was still around, would probably help her get through her negative emotions towards her parents. It really was not healthy to have so much anger towards the people who gave birth to you. Even if it was certainly justified due to their own irresponsibility and failures in the past.

When she had brought up that she wanted some ghost fighting training to her parents they had taken things a tad too seriously. As soon as she had brought up the word "ghosts" her father had immediately started up on a rant about no good ectoplasmic wastes of space. While her father was ranting she had taken the time to explain to her mother her reasons for at the very least learning how to defend herself from ghostly threats and that she had no real interest in continuing the family business

Maddie, while slightly disappointed at her daughter's decision to not carry on the family business, conceded the point that in the current situation that it would be a good idea for Jazz to learn how to defend herself then explained that they could start tomorrow but that Jazz would have some "classmates."

Of course when she had told Jazz that she had not mentioned that it would be Jazz's actually classmates. Give or take a year or two. Honestly she had just been expecting Sam and Tucker not a good dozen or so other students she knew to varying degrees.

She recognized most of them of course. There was that kid she helped tutor Dash Baxter, a couple of his friends whom she recognized but couldn't quite name off the top of her head. Sam and Tuck were there as well obviously, yet suspiciously out of their ghost hunter gear. Perhaps they didn't want their fellow students to know that they were already ghost hunting. For what purpose though she couldn't imagine.

She recognized another girl as Valerie Gray who was like Dash, one of the "A-listers" for the freshmen. Valerie was one of the five girls in the house total, that was including Jazz and her mother. She was sitting relatively near Dash and his jock pals and a larger distance from everyone else.

There was a boy she recognized as Wes "something-or-other" who was a junior like her and she knew to be on the basketball team. He had orange-red hair and was actually kind of cute looking...

A pair of kids who looked like siblings, a boy and a girl. There hair was strangely kind of purplish but that might have just been hair dye. she thought the girl was named Abigail or something similar. She had met her once when she had been tutoring Lucy Smith. That gave her a bit of pause, she really hoped that Abby wasn't just there because of some anti-ghost vengeance streak.

There were only a few other kids that she didn't recognize off the top of her head but just about all of them were the ones likely to be here for extra credit in gym. None of them were juniors like her though which was a bit odd. In fact as far as she could tell Wes and herself were the only Junior there. But that was alright.

"Okay then!" Jazz looked to her mother who had clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. She was wearing her usual hazmat suit with the hood and goggles up. "Who's ready to learn about ghosts?"

This produced a severe _lack_ of any real enthusiasm from the students gathered to join the "Ghostkateers." Seriously what idiot came up with that name? Jazz then internally grimaced, more than likely it was her father who came up with that name. She loved her father dearly but how someone could be both semi-genius inventor and complete imbecile, she would likely never know nor understand.

"Great!" Maddie exclaimed with a much more forced smile than her initial one, seeing as no one had raised their hands. "Let's get started then! Jack, would you please explain to the class what a ghost is."

There were a few groans from the teenagers due largely to the fact that most of them were hoping that this would be cooler than school. Jazz however was no new cadet to paying attention to a lesson and Mr. Lancer actually pulled out a notepad and looked ready to start taking notes.

Jazz, having read through the books Danny had loaned her wondered what kind of things her parents had learned about ghosts in their rigorous studies that had literally been going on since before she was born.

"Well…" Her father started off then scratched the back of his head a bit. "We don't actually know too much about them to be honest. They only just started showing up recently."

"Wait, how can you two be ghost experts when you've only just started getting research material recently." Mr. Lancer asked sounding quite confused. A number of the students looked quite surprised as well which spoke volumes for just how drastic her father's statement was.

"While we haven't been able to study ghosts themselves very much." Maddie quickly cut in before her husband could dig the hole he had started any deeper. "We have studied the stuff they're made of, that is ectoplasm."

"That's right!" Jazz's father perked up after having been looking down in the dumps at being cut off before he could really start blathering on about his favourite subject. "Ghosts don't show up too much but there's a lot of non-sentient green goop that they leave behind!"

Jazz wondered how a ghost that may or may not exist could leave behind ectoplasm for her parents or anyone else for that matter, to find. She glanced around at the other kids but they had all fallen back into their bored stupor.

"Amity Park has always been a hotspot for ectoplasmic readings. It's why Jack and I moved here before we had Jazz." She flushed in embarrassment briefly as a few people glanced at her. Her mother however avoided getting mushy and continued speaking. "The town has been a hotspot for ectoplasm for years and we still don't quite know why. We have theories of course that this was where a natural rift between our world and the Ghost Zone existed years ago but we have no concrete reliable proof."

"Is such a thing even possible?" Lancer asked, still the only one remotely interested in the lecture apart from Jazz.

"Supposedly, I mean we managed to open up a portal here so it is clearly possible. The problem with the theory is that there has been no evidence towards the possibility of such an event occurring in nature." Maddie explained. "Jack and I have developed an equation that could prove feasible and was the basis for our own portal but the conditions that must be met are quite extreme and we haven't seen them before."

"Fascinating." Lancer said scribbling out notes and Jazz nodded in agreement. Unfortunately just about everyone else there just stared with unfocused eyes.

"Anyway, a ghost is a post-mortem semi conscious entity. They're not really alive and their biology entirely consists of ectoplasm." Jack started talking appearing quite eager. "Mads and I have been trying to study how the ectoplasm keeps its form based on whatever remains of brainwaves left tell it to do. It has been hard with just the blobs that have been showing up around town." He looked quite put off by that.

"What about the other ghosts that resemble humans or animals?" Lancer asked, a few of the high schoolers actually perked up at this question.

"Those ghosts are quite a bit tougher and harder to catch. We've come close a few times but unlike the "Bloblings" they have some form of intelligence. Although they're more like territorial animals than people." Maddie commented offhandedly. Jazz had to bite back a snort, clearly she'd never had a civil conversation with a ghost before.

"So how come they look like people then." Dash asked with a hint of mocking in his voice. His buddies nodded along with him and Jazz felt like facepalming.

"As Jack just said they're based on human brainwaves. There's just not enough left of them to have anything beyond a slight resemblance to human intelligence." Maddie explained patiently.

"So, now that we talked a bit about what a ghost is, who wants to learn how to shoot an Ectoplasmic Rifle!?" Jack suddenly butted in looking very eager, even rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

It was like someone had flipped a switch.

The entire group suddenly were raising their hands shouting "Me first, me first!" Well almost the entire group that is. Jazz had kept her hand down, as had Lancer. Tucker and Sam had also kept their hands down but they already knew how to use Fenton weapons. Everyone else however clearly wanted to take first shot at using the closest thing to a laser gun.

Actually come to think of it an Ecto-blaster might as well have been a laser weapon. They were similar enough, the only difference that Jazz knew of was that lasers were concentrated photon beams and ecto-guns were just blasts of charged ectoplasm.

So despite herself, Jazz was actually kind of eager to try one out herself. After all, the whole reason she was here was to learn how to defend herself from ghosts. Of course she had been thinking something more along the lines of hand to hand combat with some of the weapons for such fighting her parents had created in the past. Like the Fenton Bo-staff and the Fenton Gauntlets.

Then again it might be safer to just sit back and blast away with a laser gun, or rather Fenton Ecto Blaster. It was weird how her parents put their last name in the name of every invention they made. But as long as it got the job done they could call it Boaty McBoat Face.

So despite herself, Jazz raised her hand too.

* * *

 _Danny POV, Ghost Zone, Walker Prison…_

"Mmph, mmph!" Spectra grunted from behind the gag. She was wrapped in a straight jacket and had her legs tied together so she wouldn't be able to make a run for it. She had been placed on a dollie. Danny felt like it was something out of some movie. Rather than anger or denial in her eyes though she had a far more desperate look, as though she desperately wanted help to escape her current predicament.

Danny refused to feel sorry for her though. After all the trouble she had caused she deserved to be locked away forever with the key melted in the fires of Mount Doom. A bit extreme true but Danny truly felt she deserved it.

" _...a monster…"_

Her taunting voice still echoed in his mind. He shook his head to help clear his thoughts. He helped people, he was not a monster. Despite his circumstance Danny still tried his best to do good by others. No matter what the living might think of him he was one of the good guys.

Right?

 _You only help people because your obsession makes you. Would you have stopped Box Ghost that first time if it weren't for that voice in your head begging you too? Look how close you came to killing Sam and Tucker._

This time it wasn't Spectra talking and Danny knew it. Nor was it some otherworldly voice whispering darkly in his mind. No they were his own thoughts. And that scared him more than anything else.

"Take her away." Walker's voice cut into his inner turmoil and brought him back to reality. The guard behind the dollie saluted and then rolled Spectra down the hall of the prison despite her renewed muffled protests, presumably towards the maximum security section. Where she would have a permanent residence prepared for her.

"Good riddance." Danny muttered as he watched the figures disappear around the corner. If he never saw her again it would be too soon.

"You shouldn't have let her get talking. She's brought down bigger ghosts than you with words alone." Walker muttered causing Danny to cock an eyebrow at him. Since when was Walker one to give out advice. True it was after the fact and could be seen as condescending but still, not something he had expected from the notorious Warden of the Ghost Zone.

Still Danny was not about to just accept it that way. "If I could have shut her up I would have." He shot back at the warden.

"Noted. Now remind me what exactly happened to her pet shapeshifter?" Walker asked Danny.

Danny sighed and rubbed his eyes. This was not a conversation he wanted to have right now. "What's there to tell? I went back to where I tracked him and there was a chunk missing in the ice and a puddle of ectoplasm inside. I wish I knew what happened."

"Did you bring any of the ectoplasm back? I have specialists who can determine whether or not it belonged to Bertrand or not." Walker explained as he turned and started walking towards his office with Danny falling in step behind him.

"Got a bunch." Danny pulled out a makeshift ice container he had scooped some ectoplasm into. He had not had the strength at the time to bring Spectra back to Walker so he had rested in his lair after the fight and then gone back to the school to retrieve the other ghost. But instead of a heavily pissed off shadow-core ghost he had found a puddle of ectoplasm in his place.

At first Danny thought that he had somehow managed to escape his prison. It was unlikely but not totally impossible. The problem was that there was no shatter pattern outside of the mini glacier and way too much ectoplasm inside of it for something non deadly having occurred.

Danny had no idea what could have happened to Bertrand but he needed some proof to bring back so he had gathered some up to bring with him. He had hoped that he would be able to get some answers here. And so he had.

"Good." Walker snatched up the container and handed it to the nearest guard. "Get that to the lab. Tell the eggheads to find out who it belongs to." The guard salute and floated off without question. Danny had to wonder what Walker did to get all these ghosts so loyal to him that they did as he ordered without question or second thoughts.

"You have any idea what happened to him?" Danny finally asked Walker after a few minutes.

"I have suspicions." Walker admitted his expression unchanging. "It could be that he failed his obsession by you defeating him and taking away his mistress. It is unlikely though as it takes a heck of a lot it for obsession failure to end a ghost. And it rarely occurs within twenty-four hours of the fact."

Danny nodded taking note of that fact. "Anything else?"

"One other idea." Walker admitted as they arrived at his office. "Some other ghost got to him first and ended him."

Danny blanched at that idea. He wondered what other ghost might want to end Bertrand. He could imagine quite a few trying to go after Spectra but why the help? What kind of grudge against him would lead to another ghost to assassinating Bertrand in the night? Questions Danny wanted answered but had no way to know.

"Now then. Get out of my prison punk. I got work to do and don't need you screwing things up with another riot." Walker told him with narrowed eyes.

Danny sighed and put his hands up in surrender. "Fine, fine, I'm going."

He turned away from the Barrens Warden and floated off down the hall towards the nearest exit. Might as well hang out with his friends for awhile.

Still he couldn't help but let what happened to Bertrand sit in his mind. Who could have done it?

And why?

* * *

 _Unknown POV, Amity Park…_

She wanted to wring the neck of the next human she saw. This was just infuriating.

She had waited for this for so long. Plotting her long awaited revenge since before that bastard of a warden had locked her up. When she had finally escaped from that prison and heard of a way into the human world she had taken her chance.

 **FiNd ThEm. MaKe ThEm PaY.**

She winced and clutched her head. The urges that had been there for years were stronger than ever now. At first she had been at a loss for what they had been telling her to do. She had been content to just shuffle off to her lair and absorb herself with literature. But it had still been there, it had taken her a short amount of time to figure out it was her obsession but at first she had been at a loss for what it meant.

When she had finally regained her memories of her death, she had understood.

 _She was bleeding on the ground, she felt something cold sticking through her stomach. She couldn't even bring herself to move. This must have been what shock felt like._

" _Oh shit ,man I think she's dead!"_

" _Dammit, how the hell didn't you notice the pile of rocks?"_

" _Don't blame me for this!"_

" _We gotta hide her!"_

 _She wanted to scream that she was still alive but her mouth wouldn't work. Her throat still hurt from where the ropes that had been tangled around it during the prank gone wrong had grasped. In fact she thought the ropes were still there. Her vision began blackening more than it already had._

" _Get a shovel! No one has to know about this!"_

In her anger she had begun lashing out at things in the Ghost Zone. She prefered being by herself anyway, her rage just helped to keep everyone else away from her.

At first she had just been content with plotting, it didn't take up all her time so she could still enjoy reading like she had in life, besides she had no way of going back to the human world at the time. But now…

Now she could get revenge.

The problem was that she had no idea where to look for her killers. She couldn't even remember her own real last name. How was she supposed to find her old home and located the assholes who killed her with their cruel prank.

 **LeT nOtHiNg HoLd YoU bAcK.**

She wouldn't, it didn't matter how long it took her. The Wraith would have her revenge.

* * *

 **And I'm going to end it there.**

 **So we saw a couple OCs this chapter. They were sent in. We'll get proper introductions to their characters next chapter. If it wasn't obvious that last seen with "The Wraith" is going to be the current arc for the next few chapters. After that only one more arc before we get to some rather major events.**

 **Anyway sorry this came out a bit late but I had some essays due today so I didn't have time to work on it until after I turned them in. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this along with the Omake chapter.**

 **For those who didn't know it was based off a Monty Python skit called Dead Parrot in which John Cleese is sold a dead parrot and comes to complain, upon arrival he is told that the parrot is just stunned, or pinin' for the fjords.**

 **Moving along, let's do reviews!**

 _ **Revelations: Part 2:**_

 **ImpudentMiscegenation: Hope you had enough popcorn and soda to last the wait! That is a fair point regarding Danny though. **

**Kimera20: Spectra in prison now. And Yes the Ripper strikes again.**

 **TenableCape9819: Yeah Bertrand's gone. Ended as it were. I explained that back in like chapter nine? Maybe ten. Somewhere around there.**

 **Lolxxx: I wouldn't call their bond "really special." They actually have a fairly average sibling bond, although it is one of the better ones compared to me and my own sibling.**

 **Umbra . Venator: Glad you think so!**

 _ **Dead Danny (OMAKE):**_

 **Natzi Sumbitch: They have a lot of the skits on youtube including the one that chapter was based off of. They are quite entertaining.**

 **ImpudentMiscegenation: I could probably write a crack!fic around my little store… It would be entertaining to say the least. **

**Nightmaster000: I'm happy you enjoy it!**

 **Phantom J. Ryder: Yep, who would've thought John Cleese reiterating just how dead a parrot is could be so hilarious!**

 **Kittalia Phantom: Well Vladdy payed about three billion for him, so if you cough that together sure!**

 **DP-Observant69: I can see how you got that idea. Don't worry I rarely see adopted stories get finished ****(even the one I'm writing but I'm trying)**

 **That's about it folks! Don't know what I'll update next! Might be Sealed Away or Master Thief! Could be a new post! I don't know! I do know I'm gonna be on a bus for 26 hours tomorrow which sucks! But hey, I'm going to St. Loius so that's cool.**

 **Until saturday folks! When I will likely be on a bus again. For 26 hours. Again.**

 **...**

 **See ya!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	24. Words that Make a Chapter

**Howdy!**

 **So after putting some thought into it I have decided I will not be accepting any more OCs. I have most of the story planned out at this point so trying to force a new character in would be… difficult.**

 **Those who have already sent in OCs but have not yet seen them in the story, don't worry! They are coming but there time has not yet come. I'm trying to keep the OCs affecting events in each arc to a minimum. So OCs that have purpose now may be completely pointless when we get to the next part.**

 **If you wanted to send one in but could never work up the courage to click the send button I am terribly sorry to you. Let this be a learning experience, always do tomorrow what you could do today.**

 **Or something like that anyway...**

 **TLDR: I'm done accepting OCs.**

 **Anyway I spent a long time staring at this document in my folder wondering how to write it. Literally since the last chapter came out. The whole "Wraith" thing is only going to last about 3 chapters at most including this one so I need to figure out how to put it all together and hash out the characters so they aren't just "another OC"**

 **Undoubtedly some will turn out that way despite my efforts.**

 **So with that out of the way let's get started.**

* * *

 _Amity Park, December 15th…_

 **The Amity Park Times**

 _ **Deadly Car Accident, Horrible Prank Gone Wrong?**_

 _In a shocking event late last night, a driver suddenly plowed into the local Kwik-E Mart costing thousands of dollar property damage. The accident proved fatal and the driver was killed in the crash. Fortunately due to the timing of the incident there were not patrons within the store and the night janitor was cleaning up in the back room. The driver has been identified as Jeffrey Adams, a local man who is survived by his wife and two children._

 _What makes the accident odd is the string of events that led to the crash. Adams's wife reports that her husband left the house in a rush, seemingly terrified of something he refused to speak of. Eyewitnesses report the accident was not so accidental. One man reports seeing a scarecrow "appear out of thin air" causing Jeffrey to swerve his car into the store front._

 _The witness (who wishes to remain nameless but would like to say hello to all of this various family members) is quoted as saying "It was the damnedest thing, there I was, minding my own business like I do every night like that. I often head out late to clear my head, when suddenly, out of the blue…_

Jazz sighed and folded the newspaper she had been reading. The article had initially caught her attention but appeared to be fast becoming nothing more than attempt to get attention. The only important bit seemed to be the first couple of paragraphs. From what she could gather the situation appeared to be the result of the actions of a particular mischievous ghost. One that had gone too far.

As she sipped her coffee she silently wondered if the ghost had meant the incident to be fatal. Or perhaps it really had been a prank gone wrong. From her conversations with Danny, ghosts appeared to be far more human than any of them were willing to accept. The difference between humans and ghosts was that ghosts appeared to have a lesser ability to properly consider the consequences of their actions.

But despite their failure at due consideration, ghosts by far invested themselves deeper in their emotions and purposes than humans did. Likely there obsessions were responsible for this. Ghosts, from what she had read, rarely became depressed or unmotivated. If such a thing did occur something must have happened to their obsession. But apart from those rare incidents in which a ghosts obsession is ripped away from them, they were far more true to themselves than most humans.

Ironically, they quite honestly had the potential to become the best and worst of humanity. Perhaps that was why the living hated and feared them so, because they reflected themselves.

"HE IS REAL! I BELIEVE IN HIM!"

"LIES! THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE!"

Speaking of the worst of humanity…

Jazz rolled her eyes and took another sip of her coffee. Merry Christmas! Have fun listening to your parents argue about the authenticity of a corporate figurehead based on a dead christian saint from centuries ago!

The fighting between her parents concerning the "mostly" beloved holiday mascot always got worse the closer they got to Christmas, some years it was worse than others. Considering the volumes they were currently using however she suspected that, unfortunately, this was going to be one of those years.

She supposed that was to be expected, she mused as she munched on the Fenton Toast covered with jam that she had grabbed on the way out the door. After all they had just lost one of their children, they had to let all that pent up frustration at each other out somehow. Even if it was over something as silly as Santa Claus.

Although with all the ghosts around who was she to say that old Saint Nick had not come back as a ghost. She should ask Danny about it the next time she saw him. Although she was not sure whether his rather intense dislike of christmas had translated over into his afterlife. Especially if he could not remember those particular details of his life. That would really suck. How would he explain to the other ghosts "I hate Christmas but I don't know why?"

But she laughed off the thought, there was no way something like that could happen.

* * *

 _Ghost Zone, Danny's POV…_

"The fuck do you mean you hate Christmas but you don't know why?" Ember ask him seeming aghast at his declaration.

"Exactly what I said." Danny proclaimed, rubbing his temples in annoyance. "I know there's a reason but I just can't…" He let out a frustrated growl.

"Maybe you were jewish when you were alive?" Youngblood suggested helpfully.

"That's not a reason to hate Christmas, just to not celebrate it." His parrot pointed out.

"Oh shove it you!" Youngblood shot at the bird quite rudely. "I'm trying to come up with ideas for his irrational hatred of the best thing ever."

The trio, or whatever it was they were if Youngblood's parrot was to be counted, were sitting on the deck of what was to be Youngblood's pirate ship. It certainly wasn't done yet, the past was lying on its side and the back of the ship had not even been put designed yet but Danny had declared that they spent way too much time at his lair. They had considered going to Ember's but Youngblood had shouted that he wanted to show them what he was working on.

Danny had to admit, a pirate ship was pretty damn cool. If he hadn't subconsciously gone for the whole space theme for his lair he probably would have done something pirate based. Maybe. It wasn't really important anyway.

"To get a bit off topic." Danny started, "What are you making this ship out of anyway?"

"Ghost Wood." Youngblood replied simply as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What from the Ghost Forest?" Danny snorted in disbelief only to eat his words a moment later.

"Yes." Youngblood answered, still seriously, clearly confused at the other ghost boy's actions on the subject.

A moment of awkward silence followed that single syllable.

Ember broke the silence with a clap of her hands. "Getting back to the point, dipstick, forget about the job Walker wants you to do, we need to fix your Christmas-phobia!" She declared.

"I don't see why we need to do that." Danny complained rolling his eyes. "Also the job is not just supposed to be for me. All of us who broke into the prison are supposed to be trying to catch all the ghosts who escaped."

"Well it was your idea to break into the prison." Ember brushed him off.

"It was to cheer you up!" Danny protested.

"Why would I need cheering up? I certainly don't remember asking you at any point to help cheer me up." Ember inspected her fingernails appearing disinterested.

"Because- You- GAH!" Danny threw his hands up in frustration giving up in his attempt to get Ember to properly help him catch all the ghosts that had escaped.

"I'll help!" Youngblood told him in a counseling way.

"Youngblood you already said you'd help." Danny told him. "But thanks anyway."

"Ghost hunting later, we need to make you like Christmas now." Ember told him, pulling him to his feet against his will.

"But why do we need to make me like Christmas." Danny whined. He honestly did not know why he hated Christmas, from his fractured memories he could not even recall anything from that time of year. All he knew was that anything relating to the holiday inspired intense feelings of distaste and hate deep inside his core.

But the worst, the absolute worst, was anything revolving around that jolly, rosy cheeks, blood red wearing, wizard beard toting, goblin calling him Santa.

And he had absolutely no clue why he hated it so much.

"You need to like it because the Ghost Zone has a big Christmas truce. There's a party and everything, it's great! We can't have you know go because you don't like Christmas!" Youngblood explained.

"Exactly." Ember nodded.

"But what about the ghosts that aren't christian?" Danny asked with some confusion. He was ignored however.

"Okay maybe we should go with the whole three ghosts of christmas kind of thing." Ember mused out loud, "OH!" She smiled sharklike as an idea came to her. "Only instead of ghosts we kidnap three humans and make them do the shtick."

"That sounds like a horrible idea." Danny complained.

"Hang on now Phantom." Youngblood told him, listing intently to the rock star ghost. "I like where this is going."

Danny groaned and put his face in his hands. "Ember I'm fine, really, maybe Youngblood's right and I was jewish, we can celebrate Hanukkah instead."

"But Christmas is a big Ghost Zone celebration." Ember mock pouted, clearly enjoying herself. Her expression returned to normal a moment later and she grimaced. "Oh Clockwork remind me never to do that again. Way too girly-girl."

"Sure." Danny told her. "All you have to do is drop the whole Christmas thing." He told her.

"You're being difficult dipstick." She glared at him.

"Difficult is my middle name." He declared proudly.

He got a deadpan look from both her and Youngblood. "Okay we all know that isn't true.

"Oh shut up." Danny told them and before the conversation could progress any further a missile landed in the middle of the ship's deck and detonated throwing them all backwards in a mix of kinetic force and searing heat.

Yeah that was a bit unexpected.

"Ghost Child!" A familiar annoying voice called as Danny pushed himself up with a groan. "I have come for you pelt.

"Which one?" Youngbloods parrot asked as it flapped its wings above the mess and three humanoid ghosts. "There a three here. However I would be happy to volunteer the one dressed as a pirate."

"Bootlicking traitor!" Youngblood called at the skeletal bird. "This is mutiny!"

"Actually it's called survival instincts." His bird responded.

"You can keep that one." Their assailant told the bird as Danny sat up and got a good look at him. "He's far too annoying to fit in properly with my collection."

Danny grimaced as he looked on the face of a certain hunter ghost.

"No, I came for the Phantom." Skulker grinned darkly and raised an arm with a blaster mounted on his wrist. "And I'm not leaving with his scalp."

"That is seriously gross." Youngblood muttered to Danny.

"Welcome to my life." Phantom complained.

* * *

 **So I'm going to end it here.**

 **I set up a lot of things for the next couple of chapters. If it was not obvious I'm going for the whole Christmas in July thing with this story.**

 **Sorry if it seems a bit short, this chapter isn't all that plot centric but it is required in order to move along said plot so just be patient for the next chapter and all will be rewarded.**

 **So let's go over reviews shall we?**

 **Guest: I'm not omniscient so I'm not sure what you did. Maybe you saved a puppy or something.**

 **Nightmaster000 : Oh it's definitely affect some of them, like Dash. But most of the student body didn't really know Danny well enough to care.**

 **Gold Testament : Sorry it took so long but here it is at last. The stuff about Wraith should be cleared up the end of July.**

 **DP-Observant69: I know where you're coming from about OCs. In some stories they're more necessary than others but I've already posted my feelings on OCs in the early chapters of this story. Also Wraith was one that got sent in so I'm obligated to include her. If you can't stand reading it with an OC just skip this arc and wait until the next one starts but you may miss some character development. **

**Kimera20: It will sooner or later.**

 **Kittalia Phantom: Sorry lass, seems I'm fresh out of Danny Phantoms at this time. I still got the blonde ninja demon kid if you want him.**

 **Workparty : I love a good angst story was much as the next DP fan but this fandom has way too much of it. For every humor story there's about ten angst ones. So I set out to do one that avoids the horrible angst. It's certainly there at times but every teenager has a bit of that. **

**Tsukiko K: Exactly why I chose ol' Jacky boy. Who wants to rip off real life? I want him to be terrifying using the information that is known, adds a bit of suspense.**

 **Lolxxx : That may or may not occur in the next couple of chapters… Also the ten years later stuff is very interesting. I'm glad he remembered Dani. Not sure I like Maddie's design though...**

 **AlmineGoneWild: Always happy to inspire people!**

 **DannyPhantomPhandom: That's because he eats it so much.**

 **Well that's about all for now. Tune in next week for either Village Idiots or (finally) returning to Lightman Legacy. That's definitely being updated in the next two weeks.**

 **Ciao!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	25. Hunter vs Prey Plus Two

**Howdy folks! It's time for a new chapter!**

 **Before we get started I wanted to announce I have plans to go back and rewrite a few chapters that I feel could have been done better. The chapters to be rewritten include but are not limited to:**

 **-Chapter 1**

 **-Chapter 2**

 **-Chapter 3**

 **-Chapter 15**

 **-Chapter 19**

 **-Chapter 23**

 **These rewrites will not count as updates and when I do update I'll announce which one's I've finished rewriting so you can go back and reread them. I don't plan on destroying each chapter's original plot, mainly flushing out details and adding an extra scene or two.**

 **So, without further delay, let's get this chapter started!**

* * *

 _Danny POV, Ghost Zone, December 15th…_

Danny decided he really did not like Skulker.

This was due to multiple reasons. Part of it was the intimidation factor, the hunter ghost was huge and made of metal. Not to mention the fiery green hair. Seriously he was a robot ghost hunter thing, did he really need hair? Nevermind the variety of hair that was on fire. There was also the name, seriously what kind of name is Skulker? It just sounded bad, and Danny was fairly certain it had not been the hunter's name when he had been alive.

There was also the large assortment of weapons that Skulker somehow had at his disposable. Most ghosts could shoot ecto-blasts so the blasters that Skulker had weren't exactly impressive or even something to make a fuss about. No, what Danny was willing to make a fuss about were the missiles and the rockets, the ecto-energy blades and the phase-proof nets. Seriously, why did the guy need to overcompensate that much?

But the thing about Skulker that ticked Danny off the most had to be the fact that the self proclaimed "greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone!" wanted to skin him and use his pelt as a trophy. There were so many things wrong with that, Danny did not even know where to begin. Probably with the fact he was made of ectoplasm and felt safe to say he would dissolve into goop if the attempt to skin him was made.

Honestly with all the things that he disliked about Skulker he could probably make a whole list labeled: Reasons to Hate Skulker.

Unfortunately, the list would have to wait. Danny had other concerns right now, most of them centered around the fact that Skulker was attacking him and his friends in another attempt to hunt him.

He had been naive enough to think that Skulker would have given up after the first attempt at hunting him. That was not the case however and the other ghost seemed to have taken the failure personally and was coming after Danny with a vengeance. Danny's poor luck managed to continue in the fact that each and every time he ran into Skulker, he did not have his thermos with him.

This time was no different either, this left two options, fight and hope the hunter would decide it was too much trouble to try catching him now, or run for the hills, or in the case of the Ghost Zone, fly towards the floating islands in the distance.

Considering this was Youngblood's pirate ship and was right next to the ghost boy's lair, running away was not really an option. On the plus side it also meant that Danny wouldn't be fighting Skulker on his own while the hunter was fighting three to one odds. Four, if Youngblood's parrot counted as a separate entity from his partner/master/whatever their relationship to each other was.

Needless to say, despite his intense dislike for the hunter ghost, Danny almost felt bad for what they were about to do to the ghost.

 _Almost_.

A barrage of missiles fired out of a launcher that had emerged from Skulker's right shoulder. The rockets peppered the deck of the unfinished ship, some smashed right through the wood and into the bowels where the wood was weak and others exploded on impacts creating small vortexes of fire and pain.

Danny had taken to the air at this point and was flying in between and around the explosions, like a gigantic game of pinball. Just comparing the current fight to the game made Danny feel slightly guilty for whenever he popped in a quarter to play. Well, at least the balls in pinball didn't have to fear for their lives during the game.

When one of the rockets crashed into the deck in front of him, Danny found himself rapidly trying to backtrack and avoid the fire. Without thinking he blew out of his mouth, hard. He felt cold seem to flow through him as a gust of ice ectoplasm enhanced wind doused the explosion before it could reach him.

"Well that was cool." He muttered before turning his attention towards Skulker now that the last of the rockets had fallen. The hunter seemed to be fiddling with a control panel on his wrist. A look of frustration crossed his features and he slammed his fist down causing it to spark. The missile launcher retracted back into his shoulder. Danny still thought that was complete bullshit, because there was no way that multi-barrel rectangular launcher of that size could fit into Skulker's shoulder.

Before Danny could move into the attack someone else did first, he couldn't help but grin as he watched a cannon ball soar through the air and knock off one of the wings of Skulker's jetpack. Evidently Youngblood was none too pleased with the fact his ship was being attacked and set on fire.

"STOP BLOWING HOLES IN MY SHIP!" The pirate ghost was shouting at the hunter, very obviously irate at the situation. His pegleg was pointed at an awkward angle so he could fire it properly.

Skulker spiraled out of control and fell to the deck of ship in a heap. Apart from the missing wing he did not appear to have too much damage though. His remaining jetpack wing retracted and he glared at the offending attacker.

"Be silent, you annoying small ghost child!" Skulker shouted back in a less angry tone, but rather, more of an annoyed one. "I don't care about you or your pathetic and easily breakable vessel, I just want the ice-core ghost child!"

That was honestly the wrong thing for Skulker to say.

Youngblood simply started to shake with rage. He didn't say anything for moment just glared at Skulker with a fire in his eyes that actually made Danny take a step back. Skulker, that brilliant hunter, failed to sense the danger that seemed to radiate off of the smaller ghost. It was not quite a Haunting Aura, but rather the primal knowledge that the thing in front of you will fight bitterly to the end to make you suffer.

For a moment Danny actually felt afraid of the other ghost.

"You've attacked and insulted my ship, you attacked me and my friends, you want to kill one of them!" Youngblood ranted the anger still written on his face. "How dare you!"

"I don't need to justify myself to whelp like you." Skulker snorted aiming a wrist mounted blaster at the younger ghost. "You're hardly a threat, not even impressive. Your companions both are elemental core types. Ice and Fire! I get two valuable prey while only on the hunt for one!"

Youngblood's eyes shadowed under the brim of his hat. "Bones." He directed at his parrot.

"I thought you wanted to wait before you showed them off?" The parrot, apparently named Bones (very imaginative), asked.

"I don't care!" Youngblood snapped at the parrot who squawked and flew up.

"Fine, fine. I'll go get them ready." Bones the parrot told him and flapped his boney wings and flew away.

Danny decided he had spent enough time watching the confrontation between Youngblood and Skulker, whatever the other ghost was planning could wait. Dealing with Skulker was his primary goal right now. He somersaulted into the air and flew towards Skulker, fists blazing with ecto-energy.

"Dude just knock it off!" He told Skulker as he slammed into the larger ghost and knocked him off the side of the ship. As soon as they had cleared the deck Danny put the metaphorical breaks on and stayed floating in midair as Skulker floated into the depths of the Zone. Without his jetpack he was going to have trouble getting around.

He didn't get to bask in his slightly twisted contentedness however as whatever Skulker lacked in intellectual thought and conversation, he more than made up for in craftiness.

Rather than pointlessly attempting to activate his already damage jetpack, Skulker had a large single rocket launcher expand out of his lower back. Rather than attempting to fire it at Danny he pulled the projectile out of its holster and held it firmly between his legs like he was about to try and ride it like a bull. And as it turned out, he was considering he had just activated the manual launch.

The rocket propelled Skulker soared at Danny with a twisted and cruel smile stretched across his features. This left little to question about what his intent was for when he reached Danny.

What only lasted seconds seemed like an eternity to the Phantom and he would forever treasure that as he would recall perceiving Skulker's look of victory change to terror as a giant blue fist slammed into him. The impact severely damaging his armor and causing the rocket he was using to propel himself forward to detonate in a very unfortunate area.

Danny turned to the source of the fist and saw a slightly singed and very pissed looking Ember McLaine with her hand at an angle that left no question to the fact that the attack had originated from her guitar.

"What took you so long?" Danny commented teasingly and ducked under the retaliatory swipe Ember made at his head.

"I tried to stop one of the rockets, it blew me below deck and under a bunch of debris." She scowled at the memory. "I am going to put him into a world of hurt."

"Looks like you already did." Danny pointed out as he landed back on the ship and hung over the railing to get a good look at what was left of Skulker.

The once proud hunter was quite literally in ruins. Both his legs and lower torso were gone and his left arm was bent at a very awkward angle. His upper torso was scratched and had several chunks missing and his shirt was in tatters. His flaming hair flickered as it tried to stay ablaze but was fading fast. His right arm appeared to still be intact however, not that it did him much good at this point.

But Skulker was never one to take defeat gracefully.

"You think this is over!" He called in a pained yet still proud voice. "The hunt has only just begun! There will be no escape! No mercy! I'll have both your pelts, do you hear me?" He ranted at Danny and Ember.

"Can I end him now?" Ember commented as though discussing the weather.

"No, I want to see where he's going with this." Danny talked her down. Besides, he still needed to bring Skulker to Walker, honestly this might be the best chance he would get, but he was going to let the hunter use up as much precious energy as possible angrily ranting at them.

"My fury will come upon you like a stampede of enraged elephants! I have the eyes of a hawk and I will use them to hunt you to the ends of this realm and that of the living!" Skulker continued, oblivious to the plans being made for him already.

"HEY SKULL GUY!" Another voice called causing Danny and Ember to look towards where Youngblood now stood on what was going to be the poop deck of the ship.

"That's Skulker whelp!" Skulker shouted in response.

"Whatever! I just got one thing to say to you!" Youngblood announced as Bones the parrot returned to his rightful place on the boys shoulder.

"What's that?" Skulker asked skeptically.

"FIRE IN THE HULL!" Youngblood roared a vengeful grin on his face.

"Actually it's supposed to be "fire in the hole."" Bones pointed out helpfully.

"What?" Youngblood glanced at him, confusion written plain as day on his face. "But why- you know what, nevermind! JUST BLOW HIM UP!"

Danny and Ember glanced at each other but a rumbling below deck caused them to look over the edge of the boat as row after row of cannons emerged from the hull of the ship.

Skulker had a much better view than they did however and suddenly looked very nervous. He started waving his still functional arm in gesture that made it clear he wanted whatever was happening tos top. "Now listen, I know we have our differences, but I'm sure we can talk about-"

He never got to finish his sentence.

The cannons fired almost simultaneously in horrifying, yet beautiful fashion. They tore apart what was left of Skulker's armor suit and one lucky ball took his head clean off.

Ember whistled her appreciation while Danny was torn between cheering and groaning. Cheering, because his unwanted stalker was finally dealt with, and groaning, because now he couldn't bring the ghost back to Walker. Maybe he could find the head and take it back to the warden and that would be enough? Well he could dream.

So instead he decided to interrogate Youngblood. "How did you do that?" Well it wasn't much of an interrogation and more of an inquiry.

"Take a look below deck me hearties!" Youngblood smiled in a somewhat childish fashion but had a bit too many teeth.

Ember and Danny shared a look, shrugged and did as the other ghost asked. What they found was surprising to say the least.

Skeletons. Glowing green skeletons. Dressed like pirates. Needless to say whatever the two teenage ghosts had been expecting, it had not been that. Especially considering there was a small army of them below deck. Enough to crew a ship in fact…

The pulled their heads up and looked at Youngblood. The unspoken question written across their faces, no words required.

"Oh what? She can control fire and you can control ice! Not all of us can be elemental type ghosts." Youngblood protested.

"So this has to do with your core?" Danny asked but shaked his head before Youngblood could respond. "Nevermind, tell me later, right now I gotta go get Skulker's head before it floats off." He told them. "But we _are_ talking about this."

And with that he leaped into the air and took off after the floating head of the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter.

* * *

 _Danny POV, Walker's Prison, Several Hours Later…_

"All this time, he was just a frog in the head." Danny asked stupidly. Unable to keep himself from staring at the small, phase proof cage that the guards had sealed the hunter inside of. Or the true form of the hunter anyway.

"I am not a frog you insolent whelp!" Skulker protested angrily in a squeaky voice that only vaguely resembled the one he had when in his suit. "I am Skulker! I am the hunter! You are the prey! I will-"

"Shut him up and try to forget about him." Walker instructed the guards, wearing an annoyed expression. "I have a feeling you might have trouble with that though so just put him in a cell and throw away the key."

"Noo!" Skulker's squeaky voice screamed. "I am Skulker! I will not be denied!"

His screams of rage and oaths of revenge and carnage faded as the guards floated away.

"Why'd you let him keep the suit last time you had him locked up in here? I mean wouldn't it have been easier to just take him out of it?" Danny asked feeling rightfully curious.

"Shut up and get out." Walker told him without turning to look at him.

"You didn't know he was just a little blob, did you?" Danny teased, an amused grin on his face.

"Don't make me repeat myself."

* * *

 _General POV, Amity Park, December 16th…_

Let it be said that while the denizens of Amity Park were not the most intelligent lot, they were certainly made of stern stuff.

After all, just months after their town had first begun being visited by terrifying beings from another realm, the citizens were already getting used to the idea of these things being around. Some of the ghosts were even beginning to get fan clubs!

So as the Christmas season rolled in, there was no shortage of ghost themed merchandise decorating the windows of stores and the tables of Holiday Bazaars.

There were action figure versions of Technus, Phantom and even the Box Ghost, and plushy versions of Ember Mclain and her band. Numerous other ghostly themed plushes and memorabilia filled shelves. The Fentons were not in agreement with such items being sold in stores as they felt it encouraged people to view ghosts as something to enjoy and not something to be careful of and fight back against. But they were too busy fighting over the hypothetical existence of Santa to properly make any sort of stand against the odd choice of Christmas merchandise this year.

It is during this joyful time of year that two ghosts in particular were making their daily rounds.

The Ripper actually had managed to sustain his obsession over the past few weeks and managed to keep it in check enough to enjoy the festivities. Even after all these years he still recalled the happy times of holiday season from his own life. Besides, he didn't feel any need to feed his obsession right now. He might as well have fun, it wasn't too hard for him to wander the streets. He primarily had to do it at night but that was hardly a concern for a ghost of his caliber.

And if his obsession did happen to start getting out of control, well… there were plenty of potential victims around to sate it.

The other ghost that found herself in Amity Park at this time was hardly as willing to enjoy the season as her male counterpart. Wraith had come to this town with one thing in mind and she was not going to put it off and try to "enjoy the season." There would be no "Peace on Earth" until she had her peace of mind.

This day in particular found her flipping through an old high school yearbook. One for Casper High from the year 1984. The more time she spent in this town the more she remembered. Her vague concern about running out of energy without returning to the Ghost Zone was vastly overshadowed by her obsession pounding away in her core with each passing second.

She blinked as she reach the Sophomore section. She pulled a pen off of a nearby table and crossed out the picture of a teenage Jeffrey Adams. He had always been rude to her even before that incident involving her death. He had deserved having his girlfriend break up with him over finding "inappropriate" pictures in his backpack. All the better that she didn't believe him when he said that he had no idea how they got there. Some people just made it too easy.

Wraith continued to flip through the pages circling three more pictures of those responsible for her death before she made it to the W's. She stopped and stared at the picture of Kylie Wyeth. The bookish looking girl stared back at her. She held up a strand of her own dark silver hair and compared it to the brown hair of the girl in picture. It was such a long time ago, she had never really bothered trying to remember much of her life after she had remembered the exact events that led up to her death.

She leaned back and focused on the fragments she could remember, spending hours in the library getting lost in book after book. The old librarian who had jokingly offered her an internship and let her return a late book with no fee. When was the last time she had sat down with a good book?

Wraith shook herself and forced down the good memories of her life. They didn't matter now, all that mattered was her revenge. It wasn't like she had anything else. She flipped the page, putting Kylie Wyeth back in the dark as she found who she was looking for.

Andrew Zaxt. A jock of course, what else could he have been with a name like that? Once upon a time young Kylie had a crush on him and he had known it. In fact he had used it to get her to waste her time helping him prepare for midterms, leading her on and on with compliments and little gifts. Only to rip out her heart and stomp on it as soon as the tests were over and had gleefully told her all about his girlfriend once she had worked up the courage to try asking him out.

It was a real shame about his leg injury, he might have managed to get a scholarship with how well he played football. But, you never really know when a bike chain might jam and send you crashing into the ground.

Wraith smiled with twisted glee as she crossed out his picture. She glanced up from the yearbook picture of the handsome young football star to the real live thing. Time had not been kind to him. He had a potbelly and was balding at thirty six.

Of course she only knew about both those things because she had seen him briefly before the way he was now. Tied tightly to a chair, ropes completely coating his torso. His scalp had been… removed leaving the bloody top of his skull exposed as his head was forced to look towards the mirror adjacent. His lips grotesquely pulled into a forced smile as though the now dry tears running from his terrified eyes were not there.

She gave the corpse one last scrutinizing look. Honestly, part of her wondered if he would come back as a ghost. Could a human killed by a ghost come back with an obsession of revenge centered around that ghost? Maybe she was thinking too hard about it.

Shrugging, Wraith tucked the yearbook under her arm and picked up the matchbox from the table. A quick strike of a match later and a small flame lit up the dark room. She tossed it onto the floor and watched transfixed as the trail of gasoline blazed all the way to the chair.

Not staying to view her handy work Wraith turned intangible and flew out the side of the building and into the cold early morning air.

Two down, three to go. Just try and stop her.

* * *

 **And I'm going to end the chapter there.**

 **That last part got a bit darker than I meant it to be. Not that it really matters too much, just wanted to flush out Wraith a bit before we get to the stuff with her and Danny.**

 **Also, yes, Skulker has been dealt with. He'll be back eventually but for now he'll be enjoying prison life.**

 **Next time I'm going to have Danny and Ember talk with Youngblood, might include Clockwork or Ghost Writer. Also Phantom meets Wraith and things are going to get a bit philosophical about what's right and what's wrong.**

 **Oh and things will get very Christmas-y in the next three chapters.**

 **Well, time for reviews!**

 **Lolxxx: He keeps teasing us with a comeback! At this point I'm honestly willing to beg him to just start a .**

 **DannyPhantomPhandom: Christmas is coming soon. By the end of July, I promise.**

 **TheBlade17: Always happy to hear that!**

 **Guest(1): Maybe, but even if there is it won't be the main focus, merely another character plot point.**

 **Natzi Sumbitch: I know that feeling all too well.**

 **Guest(2): Sort of. Actually it comes from a friend trying to explain the lore of Naruto to me for the first time. Something about a moon tree and stuff like that. I'm not sure where the sun came into it, but it did.**

 **ImpudentMiscegenation: I think I have the most fun with Ember's lines to be honest.**

 **Kimera20: Skulker's a bit of a jerk, yeah…**

 **Guest(3): Wait no longer!**

 **Willow10: Technically it's chapter 24 because what's in the chapter 22 slot is an omake. But I'm glad you like it!**

 **That's all for now folks!**

 **Bye.**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	26. Danny vs Wraith: Part One

**Greetings and salutations!**

 **I honestly don't have much to say now other than I really hope I manage to get the Christmas chapter done by the end of the month, because if I don't it will be a huge letdown both to you and to me.**

 **Last time this stuff happened.**

 **-Danny and co. fought Skulker**

 **-Youngblood has a skeleton army!**

 **-Skulker went to jail**

 **-Wraith scalped a guy! (Which was really dark, even for me...)**

 **That's about it for last time!**

 **Not much else to say really, in any case, let's get to the chapter!**

* * *

 _Amity Park, Danny POV, December 20…_

As it turned out the conversation with Youngblood had to wait.

Not because Danny and Ember were busy. In fact there was virtually nothing they had any pressing concern to get finished. No the problem that forced them to wait before speaking with Youngblood was a very different situation indeed.

No, apparently Youngblood was in very similar metaphorical boat (as well as an actual boat), to what had happened to Danny month's prior after his first adventure on Earth after his death.

Fortunately according to Bones the parrot, the pirate ghost's situation was not quite as complicated as Danny's. Rather than having caused his core to start fraying at the seams and then attempting to reconstruct itself, Youngblood had simply used up more of his own energy than he should have. In fact, had they not been in the Ghost Zone the childlike Ghost would have likely dissolved into a pile of ectoplasmic goop.

As it turned out, and they didn't have all the details because Bones insisted on waiting until his master/owner/friend/whatever, had awaken before explaining, all the skeletons had been powered by Youngblood so he had been extending his core among all of them and it had cost him a lot of energy.

So with nothing else to do, Danny had returned to Amity Park to continue his hunt for the escaped ghosts from Walker's Prison, and he had not made any progress in the last few days.

Seeing Amity Park at at Christmas time certainly struck a few coords for the teenage ghost, none of them positive in any way. But he had no new memory fragments come to him. If he thought about it, there had been a considerable amount of time since the last time he had gained a new memory from his life. Perhaps he had remembered all he could of his life at this point in his existence.

It was vaguely depressing to consider that all he would have to remember his previous state of being was what he now had with him, yet it did not bother him too terribly. Perhaps that was part of how ghostly emotions worked, in an odd way of protecting themselves from emotional harm.

Danny, upon realizing just how much of a complicated mess it was, decided to leave such debates to scholars, or at least the ghostly equivalent of scholars and maybe philosophers. Perhaps ghosts like Ghost Writer.

Speaking of the Ghost Writer, Danny hadn't seen much of him since he returned the older ghost's books. The guy had then spent a few minutes berating him about taking so long in returning them. It had taken a significant amount of self control to avoid slugging the librarian/writer in the face.

Turns out Danny had actually caught him at a bad time, he had been writing the introduction of a new book he was writing, some sort of oversized Christmas poem. He honestly could not work up the emotions necessary to feel sorry for him.

Yes, as the holidays and by correlation, the big Christmas celebration on the twenty fifth, Danny found himself pushed deeper and deeper into a dark rage. Actually, rage was not quite the right word, it was more like, disgust.

Maybe it was the commercialism of the entire holiday? It was horribly played up by media sources and was milked for everything it was worth by salesmen, stores, and corporations alike.

Actually that didn't seem quite right as he thought about it.

At this time, Danny was sitting quite comfortably on the edge of rooftop downtown. Invisible, of course, he didn't want to cause a panic and have the Fentons coming down on him with a vengeance. Not to mention the screams of terror from citizens, kind of got old after about five minutes.

As he surveyed the town he grew up in, died in and now haunted, Danny took some time to honestly think about himself.

He liked helping people, or was it just his obsession forcing him to help people and by doing so, creating a good feeling in his core? He could go and ask Clockwork about it but he felt the old time master would not quite appreciate the visit, of course he would probably know it was coming considering the guy could… see the future? Or something anyway.

To be honest Danny did not like thinking about it. But it kept coming back to mind after his confrontation with Spectra, all the things she said.

" _...a monster…"_

Monster, that name stuck in his head more than almost anything else. Was it because his parents had been ghost hunters and subconsciously the idea that ghosts were evil monsters stuck with him even into his death and afterlife?

Danny rubbed his temples and groaned. There was a reason he left this kind of psycho analysis to Jazz when he was alive. Well at least from what he could remember of his life anyway. That and the fact that studying all of this stuff was boring

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a rather unexpected source of sound and imagery.

The source was just as odd.

It was an older guy, well not exactly old but he was certainly older than Danny. He looked like he had to at least be in his mid thirties. But the odd part was he was running down the street in his undergarments. He had a pot belly and his hair was graying despite the fact that all of it still seemed to be on his head. Fortunately he had an undershirt on and combined with a pair of briefs, covered the majority of his torso.

That in itself was odd enough but the fact he was running through the middle of the street occasionally banging on car windows and begging the drivers inside to help him certainly strung a certain chord.

Danny was almost tempted to write the guy off as some lunatic who had just let the stress of the holidays get to him and was acting accordingly. What really got his attention however, was the fact that he felt the familiar hum of another ghosts ectoplasm, incredibly weak and impossible to pinpoint properly. But regardless of details and specifics, there was definitely another ghost around somewhere.

There was no physical evidence that he could see that connected the guy running through the streets in a fair stripper impersonation, to the ghost that was somewhere in the general vicinity. Then again normally when there was a ghost around in the human world and trouble was being caused, it was normally the ghost's fault. Which honestly did not create the best image for ectoplasm based beings for the carbon based beings to judge.

So, based on his prior knowledge of his own species, Danny made the wise decision to follow the crazy half naked man running through the streets. (Which is honestly a sentence the author never thought they would write.)

He did not have to follow him for long, eventually the guy realized that no one was going to help him and turned down an alleyway in an attempt to get away from whatever was chasing him.

The man had made a very unfortunate choice of alleys however and ended up choosing, literally, the only one that had a dead end for the next four blocks. Seriously, this guy had horrible luck, if he didn't already feel bad for the embarrassment the guy must be facing for running through the streets nearly nude, Danny would surely have felt bad for him now.

Deciding that the ghost who was causing this guy such distress would surely show themself eventually, Danny decided to take a seat on top of a nearby dumpster and wait for them to appear.

He did not have to wait long.

" _Clark…"_ A haunting, ghostly voice whispered down the alleyway. Danny had to resist the urge to snort. Whoever was causing this mess was certainly going the extra mile to make this as dramatic as possible.

"I'm sorry, I swear! We didn't mean it really!" The guy whined pathetically and had given up futilely climbing to freedom and was now cowering pathetically.

Well, Danny thought to himself, that certainly was not ominous at all.

"DIDN'T MEAN IT?!" The ghostly voice dropped all form of pretence and quickly jumped straight to extreme and utterly inconsolable rage. Danny was honestly not sure if he should jump in now or if he should wait for the other ghost to actually show herself (or at least he assumed it was a "her" based on the way the voice sounded). He was fairly certain the other ghost had not noticed him as of yet due to the fact that she was currently distracted by other matters right now.

Also, Danny noticed she looked vaguely familiar.

The guy, Clark, Danny guessed, just whimpered and curled himself tighter into his fetal position.

The ghost chasing poor old Clark finally decided to show herself. Danny blinked in surprise at her appearance. Honestly he had been expecting some sort of freaky looking banshee this girl look only a couple years older than him. Well, physically anyway, who knew how old she actually was.

"I was going to drag this out…" The girl ghost commented pushing up a pair of glasses and glaring. "But you just succeeded in pissing me off even more. Speaking of which, I did not know that was possible. So congratulations I guess!" She smiled disarmingly.

The next instant the smile was gone and she was charging an ecto blast with a cruel yet victorious smirk on her face. The red-purple hues of the blast danced across the walls of the alley even in the daylight.

Danny figured now might be the best time to show himself.

"So, I'm not really an expert." He cut in trying to sound as casual as possible. "But blowing your problems to smithereens, while it helps in the short term. Certainly makes the long term harder."

The other two occupants of the alleyway just stared at him with confused looks on their faces.

"So is he with you or…" Clark started asking his assailant.

"Shut up dead man." The ghost cut him off mid sentence, turning her attention to Danny. "I'm kind of in the middle of something, so if you kindly bug off until I'm done…"

"Hey!" Danny held his hands up in a placating gesture. "I totally get what you're saying. But I also don't think I'm going to let you waste this guy for no reason. So if you would just calm down, we could-"

It rapidly became very obvious that he had said something wrong.

The girl ghost roared in rage and charged towards Danny who barely managed to dodge by turning intangible and sinking into the dumpster, and yes, it was just as disgusting as it sounded.

It was the noise of the wall smashing above his head that made it obvious he had made the correct decision by going dumpster diving. He just kept himself intangible and floated out of the trash disposal unit and back into the open air.

"Okay, I know this isn't really the time, but I normally like to know whose ass I'm about to kick so if you could introduce yourself, we can continue to the ass whooping." Danny called cheekily at the other ghost. He only half expected an answer but maybe it would give him some time to think about how to beat her. Also to try and figure out where he recognized her from.

He did not get an answer and instead just got another ecto blast which he quickly swerved out of the way of. Deciding it might be futile to talk to her he took his brief moment of respite to turn to Clark.

"Dude, you might want to run now." He told the human. The man stared in shock for a moment before shaking himself and nodding rapidly. He then scrambled to his feet and ran out of alleyway, still in his underwear.

"NOOOO!" A shriek gained Danny's attention and he quickly lunged to pin the other ghost before she could give chase after Clark.

"Oh I know!" Danny smirked as he kicked the other ghost to the ground, "I forgot to introduce myself first! My name's Danny Phantom, and you are?"

"Wraith." She hissed as her form started to morph into shadows and expand.

Danny felt like kicking himself. Now he remembered, she was one of the ghost's from Walker's prison. If he remembered correctly she had a shadow core and only two known appearances. The one he had been dealing with before and-

He was almost instantly was slammed into the other side of the alley by a long skeletal arm with claw like fingers wrapped around his neck.

A ghoulish face stared at him with horrible eyes that were the same color of her ecto-blasts. That same trippy red-purple color.

Danny really did not want to play tussle with this ghost write now. So rather than humor her and try and drag this fight out he just pulled his legs back and kicked out against her chest, tossing her to the other side of the alleyway in creating cracks running up and down the other wall, which was already in bad shape.

He quickly grabbed his thermos and took aim. "Any final remarks before I bring you back to Walker?" he asked her.

She said nothing instead, just glared and sank into the ground even as Danny pressed the button to suck her into the ghost hunting device. The beam of light harmlessly lit up the alley like a spotlight.

Danny growled and aim the device along the ground in various places, seeing if she was going to pop back up. When she didn't appear he sighed and put it back in his cloak. He then took off after Clark, maybe he could get some answers from the guy.

Assuming he got to him first that is.

* * *

 **Bit of a cliffhanger ending and once again I feel like I rush this. Oh well, I can worry about that after Christmas!**

 **Which should be Saturday, so that's going to be a long chapter.**

 **Anyway, I don't have much to say other than that there's only one month left of summer, which is depressing.**

 **Well, let's do reviews!**

 **TheBlade17: Yeah, Youngblood is tougher than he appears.**

 **Guest: I applaud you.**

 **Fantasy-Mania31: I see we have an agreement.**

 **ImpudentMiscegenation: That kitten sounds awesome. And yeah I may have jumped a bit off the deep end with that chapter ending there.**

 **Alvinju: That's actually fairly helpful and I might just use that for reference. I have other plans for how S-class ghosts are going to work but those statistics are certainly helpful.**

 **Kimera20: I feel like I might have dropped the ball a bit on their first meeting but I'm tired and uninspired right now. So fingers crossed for saturday!**

 **Viddaric: That sounds about right. Dan was definately S-class though.**

 **GearMode: Welcome to my motley crew of followers!**

 **That's all for now folks, see ya Saturday for a chapter at least twice as long as thing one!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	27. Danny vs Wraith: Part Two

**Welcome one, and all to the next chapter of our fantastic tale!**

 **It's saturday, also the last saturday in July, this means that once again my updates will be returning to once a week. I know this is saddening and depressing to all of you, which is why I will now quote the wise words of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets;**

" **Herdy dur mur flerpty floopin."**

 **I have no idea what it means or even if it's actual swedish but it just speaks on so many levels.**

 **Anyway, Danny vs. Wraith part two! Well, that's the first three quarters, then the next part of the chapter is christmas stuff.**

 **Well, just sit back and enjoy people!**

* * *

 _Danny POV, 65 Elm Street, December 21…_

"How long has he been like this?" Ember asked Danny tentatively, her voice barely audible over the broken, near naked, man's sobs.

"The past twelve hours." Danny commented rubbing his eyes in faux exhaustion. Well, it was not entirely fake, while physically (supernaturally?) he was not in the least bet tired, mentally, he was feeling the long hours he had spent trying to get some answers about what the heck was going on, out of this guy.

After the whole situation with the "Wraith." Or rather Kylie Wraith as her file indicated, Danny had gone looking for Clark to try and figure out why she had been after him with such a vengeance and with murderous intent.

He had found him, alive and healthy. Mostly, healthy anyway. He had appeared to be in the midst of having a panic attack and there were police officers closing in on his location. Rather than allow the man to be arrested by the authorities, Danny had erm… kind of, maybe, sort of, kidnapped Clark.

It was for his own good! There was no nefarious intent behind it whatsoever.

Danny had then taken the thirty-something year old back to his haunt on Elm street, both for his own safety as well as to make inquiries as to what was going on.

Needless to say, things went way downhill from there on out.

Things had started out simply enough, Danny had sat Clark down in one of the less dusty and rotted chairs in the house. He gave the man a blanket to cover himself up as the house did not exactly have any heating and he was starting to get really tired of looking at a fat guy in his underwear.

That was about when things had started to go downhill.

"Okay, Clark right?" Danny waited for the man to nod at his name before allowing himself to continue. "Alright, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know why that other ghost was attacking you."

This was where the trouble began.

Rather than remain calm and tell Danny word for word in an intelligent and clear way, what had caused Wraith to come after him in such an aggressive and deadly manner, the man dissolved into a sobbing and blubbering mess. Having no idea what he had done wrong, Danny immediately began trying to placate the man with every method he knew. Unfortunately, he did not have many methods for this kind of task.

When he finally managed to get Clark to calm down he tried to go about asking for the information in a different manner. "Okay, just start at the beginning I'm not going to hurt you. Really!" Danny insisted holding his hands up in a placating manner to try and show that he meant the man no harm. Well, at least no further harm than kidnapping him and keeping him in a haunted house.

"Y-you want me t-to start from the beginning?" The man sniffled tearfully. Danny had nodded eagerly, hoping that they were finally going to start making progress, and they did! Well, they would have if it had been a therapy session rather than an inquiry as to why a teenage ghost was trying to kill him. This was largely due to the fact that Clark began telling Danny his life story. Or the bad parts of his life at any rate.

"When I was three I flushed my mom's keys down the toilet. And then I told her that the dog did it." The man started blithering on about his early childhood and all the mistakes that he had made as a small child.

Danny, having seen what else could happen, decided to try humoring the man and allowing him to work out his issues before pressing more on the issue about Wraith. This proved to be another mistake on Danny's part. Mainly because they were there all day and into the wee hours of the next.

"When I was ten I peed on my dog." Danny had given Clark a well deserved disgusted look at this point but kept quiet. "Right on his little dog face." The man sobbed pitifully.

"What?" A feminine voice had asked behind Danny, causing him to whirl at the unexpected sound. He relaxed when he saw it was just Ember rather than Wraith come back to finish the job.

"Oh hey." Danny waved at her and sat back down. Clark appeared to be too lost in his own inner demons to notice the presence of the new ghost and just continued blathering on and confessing about all the bad things he had ever done in his life.

"I came to let you know that Youngblood just woke up, but seriously what the heck?" Ember explained she had an odd look on her face. It appeared to be a mix of confusion, annoyance and acceptance.

"This is Clark, a ghost named Wraith tried to kill him for some reason. I'm trying to find out why." Danny told her, easily summing up what took an entire chapter and the start of the next to write down.

We now come full circle, back to the present where our chapter began before this sort of flashback.

"Have you considered just telling him to get to the point?" Ember suggested as Clark let out his regrets about stealing twenty dollars from his dad's wallet so that he could get a tattoo that he almost instantly regretted having. This caused him to then steal twenty dollars from his mom's wallet so he could have it removed. In doing this, he caused a fight between his parents as each accused the other of taking twenty dollars from their respective wallets.

"I tried doing that first." Danny grumbled, crossing his arms and most certainly not pouting. "Trust me, this is better. At least this way I hope he'll get to it eventually."

Ember glared but settled down on the nearby couch to listen in on the confession and wait for this mess to be over. She ended up waiting there and managed to hold her patience for another hour.

As Clark started getting into details about just what he did with his uncle's Playboy magazine Ember decided she had, had enough of this.

"Okay dipstick, got any other ideas because I'm about ten seconds away from blasting this guy to smithereens myself." Ember gritted out, obviously having reached her patience's end.

"Not exactly, if you have any ideas, I'm all ears. Besides you no one is making you wait here." Danny complained. Clark continued to confess his past sins as they had their conversation.

"Well I was bored, and Chuck is only slightly better than this." Ember muttered under he breath with venom.

"Exactly- wait did you just call him Chuck?" Danny asked an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Yeah? That's his name isn't it?" Ember gave Danny her own look of confusion.

"But-" Danny opened and closed his mouth as he wasn't quite sure how to phrase his question. After all, everyone seemed to refer to each other by the names that they had chosen after dying, not the names they could remember. "Nothing." He finally turned away and went back to listening to Clark. Honestly the older guy's life story would make a pretty funny sitcom from what he heard thus far.

Ember stared at him strangely for another moment before shaking her head. "Anyway, you hang out in the human world a lot. Don't you know some weird human way to talk to him about his problems?"

"No I don't know how to do that. That's what psychologists and therapists do." Danny rolled his eyes. "I am not one by the way that wa-" He froze as his mind finished the sentence before it could eject from his lips.

"What?" Ember asked, seeing the expression on his face.

"I'm so freaking stupid." Danny muttered as he stood up and walked to the nearest wall to bang his head on repeatedly.

"Well, I could have told you that." Ember told him. "I don't see why that's so important."

Danny's head connected to the wall five more times before he finally answered the rock star's question. "You'll see, I'll be back in a bit. Keep an eye on him." He told her before going intangible and phasing through the wall.

After all, he did know a shrink in training.

* * *

 _An hour later…_

"You do know that it's three in the morning." Jazz Fenton complained as Danny carried her through the sky towards his house. "You may not need it anymore, but sleep is very important for the developing teenage brain."

"Quit the psycho babble, you already said you would help me." Danny rolled his eyes and kept flying.

"It is not psycho babble, it's common knowledge." Jazz told him in a lecturing tone of voice. "Besides, do you have any idea how dangerous it was for you to sneak into my house in the middle of the night? Mom and Dad have so many alarms it's a miracle that none of them went off."

"It wouldn't be the first time I sneaked in." Danny muttered thinking back to his trips through the Fenton Ghost Portal.

"What was that?" Jazz asked, not quite having heard his mutterings.

"I said, we're here." Danny quickly changed tunes as he phased the two of them through the walls of the old house and into the living room.

Clark was still alive and still blubbering hopelessly, so nothing new there. Ember however had changed positions on the couch. She now was laying across the length and appeared to be screaming into a pillow to let out her frustration.

"Okay, this seems like a mess." Jazz commented having taken in the situation. "Which one did you want me to talk to?"

Ember, hearing her voice shot up and relaxed slightly when she saw Danny. That did not keep the barely contained rage out of her voice when she said "Shut him up, now!"

"Wait a second, is that Ember Mclain?" Jazz asked Danny. When he nodded she continued. "I thought the thing about you being a ghost was just a publicity stunt."

"Wow, is that-" Ember started sarcastically but stopped when she realized she didn't have a name. "I'm sorry, I'm trying to insult you but I don't know your name, so I can't do so properly."

"Jazz Fenton." The girl responded indignantly, crossing her arms, which would have looked more impressive had she not been wearing a bathrobe.

"Wait Fenton?" Ember questioned and stared at the redhead, then glared at Danny. "You brought a Fenton here?"

"She's a friend!" He held his hands up in defense. "Really, she won't tell her parents."

"How do you know?" Ember asked skeptically.

"Because I'd rather not sell out and risk the… afterlife, of someone I've known for years." Jazz said.

"Wait you knew the dipstick when he was alive." When Jazz reluctantly nodded in confirmation, Ember seemed to change gears. "Great! You can tell us why he hates Christmas!"

Danny spluttered and shot Ember a betrayed look. "Are you seriously still talking about that?"

"Yes!" Ember snapped at him. "It's very important!"

"Wait can you seriously not remember why?" Jazz asked Danny who reluctantly muttered out a "no." Her brow wrinkled in thought and she rubbed her chin. "Hmmm, I guess not all traumatic events cross over when you die like I theorized, or they weren't nearly as traumatic as I thought."

"But-" Ember started to press but was cut off by Clark as he started sobbing very loudly for a particularly interesting event involving his father's brand new car. "Okay, we can talk about this later, get him to calm down first."

"Is that all?" Jazz asked already sitting down to start the conversation.

"Also see if you can find out why a ghost named Kylie Wraith wants to kill him." Danny told her.

"Yowch, well settle down then, this is going to take awhile." Jazz said, making herself comfortable.

"Okay Clark…" Jazz started and continued to talk to the man. Using a variety of psycho-analysis techniques to first calm him down and restore his confidence, somewhat at least. The author would have included this part and had a better understanding of how it worked if not for the fact that the author did not get into the Psyche 101 class that the author wanted to get into. The author is in no way bitter about that fact of course.

Jazz soon managed to get him to started talking about Wraith, apparently there had been no warning and suddenly a stink bomb had gone off his closet making his clothes unwearable. Then that terrible voice had started whispering threats to him and he had run off trying to get away from it.

When it came time to find out why Wraith had been chasing him in the first place, Clark suddenly clammed up. That immediately set alarm bells off. He definitely knew something.

"Look you lard-tub," Ember cut into the conversation, if it could be called that as Clark refused to say anything at this point. "Do any of us look the like we have any real authority that could get you into trouble? In case you haven't noticed, Wraith wants to _kill you_ , so start talking."

Clark remained silent for another few minutes as the teenager trio waited to see if he would say anything. When he finally opened his mouth and spoke, it was in a hushed, guilty tone.

"Twenty years ago, there was a girl…" Clark started looking like he didn't want to say a word. "She was always quiet and nobody really liked her all that much." He continued quietly. "Sometime people- we, did or said things to her. Nobody really noticed it at first, but when you did that, something…" His brow furrowed as he searched for the proper words. "...something _bad_ would happen to you."

Danny said nothing as his brow furrowed, from the way Clark was talking it sounded like a geek getting revenge on the bullies. While that felt good in the short term, usually things went wrong somewhere down the line.

"A group of us figured that out. There was me, Jeffrey Adams, Andrew Zaxt, and John Burtean and Pamela Johnson." Clark continued and his words started to become more rapid even as a pit of dread welled up in Danny as he figured out where this was going. "And before I continue let me just tell you her pranks were _mean_. Andrew broke his leg and he lost his place on the football team, John was found naked and locked in a classroom, Jeffrey had the girlfriend he had been chasing after for years break up with him, Pamela had an allergic reaction in the middle of a speech in front of the whole school."

"What about you?" Ember asked quietly in an accusatory tone but if Clark heard it he didn't react. Something told Danny he didn't see them in front of him anymore.

"It wasn't supposed to be anything too bad, we were going to embarrass her, take some pictures and use them to get her to stop doing stuff to us." He couldn't seem to get the words out fast enough now. "We tricked her into coming out to the woods, and had this rope trap set up…"

Clark went quiet for a moment before continuing. "But when she was struggling the ropes snapped and… and she fell and then…" Clark didn't say anything else after that.

Danny gripped the edge of his chair tightly but held back from slugging the guy in the face. "You killed her. You killed her because she decided she didn't want to be the victim anymore?"

"But no one did anything bad to her before that!" Clark protested looking very alarmed and like he would rather be anywhere but there. "It was mostly just words! And we didn't mean to kill her!" His words were weak though, as though he, himself did not believe them.

"Oh and that just makes everything alright!" Danny shouted feeling his anger swelling up within him.

"Please don't kill me…" Clark muttered, the man seemed to shrink, he seemed tiny even to Danny, the smallest person in the room.

"You're pathetic." Danny snarled but did not attack the man. Even though what they had done was horrible and unforgivable Danny was not about to kill someone or let them be killed. In fact he had a different idea.

"Hey Jazz," He told his former sister who had been quiet up until now. He never took his eyes off of Clark as he spoke. "If you got time I have a side project for you, see if you can dig up any information about anyone named Kylie who disappeared back then. Look around a bit and if or when you find something show it to the cops."

"I think I might just do that." Jazz said with a glare at the older man.

"Can you get home or do you want me to fly you?" He asked her.

"I'll do it." Ember volunteered suddenly. "I need to get out and think a bit." Danny nodded at her and watched as the girls left. A part of him whispered that might be a bad idea for multiple reasons but he ignored it. His thoughts and emotions were in turmoil right now.

He sat down and ignored the whimpering of Clark. On the one hand, Clark and his companions had been responsible for that girl's death, on the other hand he couldn't just let them die. To quote a phrase, an eye for an eye made the world go blind. As horrible as it was for them to have done that, now they could face trial for it if Jazz managed to dig anything up.

That was when the wall behind him exploded.

There had been no warning and Danny barely had time to collect himself as an ectoblast slammed into him and sent him tumbling across the room.

Danny pulled himself out the ruin just in time to slam into Wraith before she could reach Clark. She was in her more disturbing form and Danny had to hold back his repulsion as he took in her ghoulish features.

Using his shoulder he forced both of them into intangibility and tried to get them out of the house. It was not to be though, as Wraith grabbed at his hair and pulled hard, throwing off his aim and allowing he to get free from his grip.

" **Out of my way."** She shrieked at him and kicked his still intangible form through the floor.

Danny stopped himself in the basement of the old Victorian style and flew back up through the floor where he thought the living room would be. As soon as he entered he allowed himself to become tangible again and turned just in time to see Wraith charging an ectoblast. Danny braced himself for the impact as she launched the attack. When he felt nothing he realized he had made a horrible mistake.

He had not been the target.

"NO!" He cried to late and turned to see the too still form of Clark laying on the ground. He froze as he heard Wraith's victorious laughter. He turned to face her only to watch as she faded into invisibility. That did not stop him from throwing a frustrated ectoblast where she had been moments before, but it was pointless.

He landed gingerly on the floor and looked at Clark's body. He slumped in defeat and clenched his fist. This was how Ember found him when she returned a few minutes later. He idly wondered why his obsession was not bothering him. Maybe because Clark was not innocent? He had no idea but he was not about to start complaining.

"What now?" Ember asked gingerly sensing the delicate situation.

"Now we find the rest of Wraith's killers." Danny told her. "And we get to them before Wraith does."

* * *

 _Danny POV, Amity Park, Three days later…_

It took three days for Danny and Ember to find all five of them. Clark was a given and a good place to start. They then began searching for Jeffrey Adams, Andrew Zaxt, and John Burtean and Pamela Johnson.

Jeffery Adams and Andrew Zaxt were easy, they had died in the last couple of weeks under odd circumstances. Jeffrey in a strange car accident and Andrew in a house fire that had started in his bedroom.

John Burtean and Pamela Johnson proved far more difficult, it wasn't until the twenty third of December that Ember found an old newspaper clipping about John Burtean being killed fifteen years earlier in an accident when his vehicle went off the edge of a cliff. Mysterious, yes but not impossible.

Pamela Johnson was the hardest to find and it came as no surprise. Apparently she had gotten married not long after high school and had her name changed. The good news was that she was still alive. The bad news was, just what her name had been changed to, Pamela _Manson._

Danny was already had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

 _General POV, Manson Mansion..._

"This is not how I wanted to spend Christmas eve." Ember complained.

"Arr." Youngblood agreed having been convinced to go along by Danny.

"Meh." Danny commented not really caring one way or the other. In fact he actually kind of liked spending Christmas this way. It was much quieter. That caused him to pause, okay where had it being quiet, come into his problem with Christmas.

The three of them were staking out the Manson house (if it could be called that), and were watching to see if Wraith would show up, so they could stop her.

"Ugh! How can you still hate Christmas?" Youngblood whined at him.

"It's been like two weeks!" Danny complained. "What did you expect?!"

"I don't know? Maybe character development!?" Youngblood shot back at him causing all three ghosts to pause and cough awkwardly.

"Anyway, I doubt we'll get him to like Christmas any time soon, after all his parents like to fight at this time of year." Ember commented offhandedly.

"Wait what?" Danny asked, shocked. How did she know that? _He_ didn't know that!

"Yeah, Jazz told me when I was flying her home." Ember told him. "Which, by the way, really sucks dude."

"Why would anyone fight at Christmas!?" Youngblood said loudly getting both Danny, Ember and Bones to immediately shush him.

"I didn't get all the details." Ember admitted. "But dipstick, I have to say this, you're not around them anymore, they won't bother you with their fighting anymore, you can enjoy Christmas now."

"Well, thanks I guess." Danny told her. It was nice to get some answers as to why he hated Christmas but that didn't mean he was going to magically started liking it. "I'll think about it." He told her.

Before anyone else could say anything a scream of terror coming from the house got their attention.

"Stay out here!" Danny told his friends. "If you see her trying to get away grab her!" Having finished he immediately flew towards the source of the scream. He had to go into the house intangibly and found himself in one of the larger hallways. Unwanted memories of him and Sam hanging out and dodging her parents began to surface and he forced them back down. Now was really not the time!

"Okay then…" He muttered as he floated through the halls trying to find the exact source. "If I were an old fashioned rich woman in her thirties, where would I be…"

Another scream answered the question and he quickly flew towards the source. He found Pamela Manson running through the hall in her nightgown, a look of horror on her face, Danny looked down the hall to find out why. He immediately got his answer as an ectoblast narrowly missed his face.

He quickly weighed the pros and cons before he turned, grabbed Mrs. Manson and flew her out of the house with his intangibility.

Danny dropped her ungracefully on the ground and glared at her. "I don't care what you have to say, or think for that matter, just run as fast as you can as far as you can, she's only after you." Hey, just because he was saving her life, didn't mean he had to like her.

The woman had a mix of emotions running across her face but eventually forced herself to her feet and ran for the woods. It was a good thing she was wearing slippers.

The ghost boy turned just in time to have Wraith slug him on the right side of his face. He grunted as the pain registered before pulling a roundhouse kick sending her spiraling to the ground. He barely registered the fact that she was no longer his her more skeletal form and instead just started trying to talk her down.

"Look I know what they did to you, but-" Wraith just screamed and lashed out with a flurry of ecto blasts.

"You don't understand anything!" She screeched at him, tears of rage and sorrow laced her eyes.

"If you would just listeeeeen!" Wraith grabbed his leg and used it as a pivot to throw him to the ground.

Wraith didn't bother to humor him with more conversation and just turned and started punching him over and over again while he was on the ground. He was not quite sure what she was trying to accomplish but it certainly hurt.

The physical assault stopped when a cannonball slammed into her sending her crashing into a nearby tree.

"I'm getting tired of saving your lazy butt Phantom." Youngblood teased him.

"Shut up Chuck." Danny told him pushing himself up and needlessly testing his arm to make sure it was still in his socket. Force of habit from being bullied for years as a human.

"What did you just call me?" Youngblood asked with surprise and confusion.

"I- but- you-" Danny stuttered but shook himself. "Forget it! Focus on her!"

Wraith was not looking to good, she barely managed to stumble to her feet and she look far more dazed than any other ghost Danny had seen hit by Youngblood's cannon peg-leg. Ectoplasm dripped from where a splinter was stuck in her arm.

"No… Not when I'm so damn close!" She blasted at them blindly, not actually managing to hit them at all.

"She's lost it." Youngblood said, then turned to Danny and asked him something completely off topic. "What did you get me for Christmas?"

"What?" Danny stared and then felt like kicking himself, with everything going on he forgot Christmas presents. He would deal with that later. "WHY THE HECK ARE YOU ASKING ME THAT RIGHT NOW!"

"Well what's she going to do? Not hit us some more?" Youngblood shot at him even as the blasts stopped firing. The two turned just in time to see her flying off into the woods.

"Crap, stop her!" Danny swore and the two ghost leaped into the air and flew after Wraith.

She didn't get far though and not because anyone stopped her. She just lost control of her flight and crashed into the ground in a tumble. Unfortunately, it was close enough for her to see Mrs. Manson.

He moved faster but even as he flew he knew he wouldn't make it in time, a weak ectoblast left Wraith's hand and flew towards Mrs. Manson.

There was an explosion of red-purple energy.

Then silence.

Danny stared at the spot where Pamela Manson had just been and then turned to the downed Wraith. She really did not look good. She wasn't just leaking ectoplasm now, she seemed to be shedding it, like she was falling apart.

"I did it!" She laughed madly. "They're all dead." Danny watched as she started crying again, only instead of clear tears these were now green tinted, as though ectoplasm was escaping through her tear ducts.

"Yeah." Danny muttered, not sure who he was the most angry at. Himself for failing, the fact that Pamela and her companions had killed Kylie in the first place, or at Wraith for killing them.

"It's over…" Kylie Wraith muttered, still smiling as her eyes closed. If it weren't obvious before, it was now. The ghost girl was really falling apart, who knew how long it had been since she had been inside the Ghost Zone.

Danny, seeing nothing else to do, pulled out his thermos and used it on her. As the beam of light sucked up Wraith he heard Ember come up behind him. "Hey dipstick."

"Not now Ember." Danny muttered angrily.

"But I need to know where you want me to take her, we can't just leave her to wake up in the woods." The rockstar continued.

"What?" Danny whirled and sure enough there was Pamela Manson, unconscious but very much alive. "How?"

"I grabbed her and went invisible after the blast hit. I thought Wraith would have more of a fight left in her than that." Ember mused.

"Take her back to the house and leave her in the main hall, I'm sure someone will find her there." Danny smiled. They had actually saved someone tonight, that made him feel much better. True it was kind of a mixed victory, but now he could at least get Wraith back to Walker. That would be another ghost back to the prison.

"Well, now what?" Youngblood asked as Ember flew off.

"You head back to the Zone, or the house." Danny told him. "Do whatever it is you do around Christmas."

"Yes!" Youngblood cheered and flew off. Leaving Danny alone, he looked at the thermos with Wraith in it.

 _...monster…_

No, he wasn't.

* * *

 _Danny POV, Walker's Prison, December 25th…_

Danny made a few stops before he brought Wraith to Walker's prison. Nothing that took too long, he just had to grab a few things. He would find a way to pay the people he got them from back later, that part did not matter too much right now.

"So, I'm guessing she just spent too much time in the human world?" Danny asked Walker for confirmation as he watched from behind the glass as various medic looking ghosts bustled around the prone form of Wraith.

"That's part of it." Walker commented, not turning to look at Danny. "The other part is she completed her obsession."

"But she didn't." Danny told him feeling confused, "If her obsession was to kill her killers then she didn't, one's still alive."

"But she thought she did." Walker pointed out. "If I were to rip your punk head off right now and tell your buddies that Skulker did it, who are they going to blame?"

"Fair point." Danny muttered not pressing the issue. "So now what?"

"Now, we wait for her to end." Walker said and began walking away.

"Wait, what?!" Danny shouted and immediately followed after the warden. "I don't get it, why-"

"She completed her obsession." Walker told him as though he were speaking to a young child. "Her core is destabilizing as we speak. But beyond that she is in utter bliss, it is quite honestly the best way for a ghost to end."

"But what if they don't want to go?" He asked the older ghost in confusion.

"Look punk, I'm not going to sit down and explain this issue like Clockwork or someone who gives a damn, but when a ghost completes their obsession, they have two options, end in the most peaceful and enjoyable way possible, or find a new obsession and go on existing in this imperfect world." Walker told him, actually looking him in the eye when he spoke for once.

"Oh…" Danny didn't know what to say to that.

"Now get out of my prison punk." Walker continued to walk away but paused briefly, "Oh and Merry Christmas." He then continued towards his office.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas." Danny said, lost in thought.

* * *

 _Later…_

Danny soon learned why Christmas was so important in the Ghost Zone.

There was this whole Christmas truce thing that extended to the entire Zone, not just a few individual regions. Not to mention along with this truce, came a Christmas party!

So it was that Danny found himself dragged (quite literally) to the party by Youngblood and Ember.

Danny tried to distance himself from getting too involved but soon could no longer deny he was having fun, after all it was kind of hard not to laugh while Box Ghost tried to do break dance. Not to mention it was amusing to watch while Ghost Writer read aloud his new Christmas poem and got continuously frustrated that no one was really paying attention to it.

Before long he found himself at a buffet table sitting next to Bob the Determined listening to the odd ghost complain about someone he had met before his death.

"And then this brat said he didn't believe in the Glorious Sun God or even the Despicable Moon Tree because he was an atheist! Can you believe the nerve of that blasphemer?" Bob was ranting at Danny. Said ghost byo just humored the other ghost and nodded along.

"Hey Phantom!" Youngblood tapped him on the shoulder getting him to turn around. "Here!" The pirate shoved a large, round disc shaped present into his face.

"What?" Danny asked confused.

"It's from me and Ember, by the way, this was way hard to get!" Youngblood told him eagerly.

"That should be "this was _really_ hard to get."" Bones corrected the ghost child.

"Oh shush you!" Youngblood told the parrot.

"I think I'll wait to open it until after the party, in fact I'll do it when I give you guys your gifts. I would have brought them, but two people who shall remain nameless dragged me here before I could get them." Danny told him.

"Phooey!" Youngblood said and floated off looking put off.

"Wait!" Bob shouted from next to Danny and took off after the pirate. "I must tell you of the Glorious Sun God!"

Johnny Thirteen was the next person he talked to and he still wasn't sure what to think of there conversation.

"Ember told me you guys ran into the Wraith." The punk ghost started.

"Yeah, did you know her before Walker locked her up?" Danny asked.

"Something like that." Johnny paused. "I heard that she completed her obsession, that she's ending?"

"That's what Walker said, he said it was the best way for a ghost to "die."" The ghost boy told him.

"Good for her, good for her." Johnny muttered then shook himself. "I'll talk to you later, have fun and Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" Danny returned still feeling a bit confused.

The party ended after a few more hours and the group met up at Danny's lair for presents. Danny really hoped they liked what he got them even if he had gotten them a bit last minute.

"Well open it." Ember prompted as Danny held the weird disk thing that Youngblood had given him at the party. Youngblood seemed eager to see him do it.

Danny shrugged and ripped open the gift. His eyebrows went wide when he saw what it was. It was round alright, but it was also indented somewhat, there was cross that met in the middle of the disk with the letters DP engraved in the middle with his familiar style. The four quadrants of the shield however were made of some material that was cold to the touch.

"What is it?" Danny asked feeling a bit guilty about not knowing.

"It's a stalin shield!" Youngblood announced proudly.

"It's Stalhrim actually." Bones corrected the pirate who pouted.

"It's a rare material found in FarFrozen, don't ask how we got it but it's nearly indestructible and if you haven't noticed yet, incredibly light!" Ember grinned.

"Awesome." Danny muttered, and he meant it. A shield to go with his sword! "This is really _cool_." He emphasized the last word. Ember groaned and Youngblood snickered.

"Don't make me regret getting you this dipstick." The rockstar told him. "Now what did you get us?"

"Take a look." Danny gestured to the presents that sat wrapped next to Cujo's new doggy bed. The little green dog was dozing and occasionally kicking his legs as though he were dreaming.

Much to his disappointment, Youngblood's was much smaller than Embers but he opened it anyway. He was surprised to find a small cylinder that seemed really old.

"What is it?" The pirate ghost asked even as a short series of smaller cylinders slid out and made it obvious.

"A spyglass, an authentic one, as in it was used by either a pirate or a privateer way back." Danny smiled at him.

"Wait, you mean this belonged to a real pirate?" Youngblood gush and held it as though it were worth a hundred thousand dollars, which it didn't. It was actually ten thousand.

Ember had opened her gift, at first it seemed to be a normal guitar, until she saw the name written on it. She was still staring at that name when the attention switched to her.

"Does that say…" She started unable to finish.

"I don't think it was actually his." Danny admitted, "But that's definitely his signature."

Ember clutched it tight and refused to let go. Danny smirked and Youngblood just looked confused. "I don't get it, she already has a guitar."

"Yeah but hers isn't signed by Jimi Hendrix." Danny told him smiling.

"What, did no one get me anything?" Bones asked in a deadpan.

"Oh, I'll give you a box of crackers when we get back." Youngblood told him.

Danny sat back and allowed himself to relax properly for the first time in days. They still needed to find out what was up with Youngblood's powers but for now he felt content. His mind flashed back to Wraith and wondered what it must feel like to complete your obsession. Content? Happy? Ecstatic?

He figured, given his own obsession he would probably never know but for some reason, he didn't have a problem with that.

As Ember started to play the jingle bell rock on her new guitar and Youngblood used his spyglass to inspect Cujo, Danny decided that if every Christmas was like this, maybe he could grow to like the holiday.

* * *

 **Well that's the end of that chapter.**

 **Okay so maybe it's a bit past midnight but I don't want to hear complaining about timing, this is the single longest chapter for this story and the second longest chapter I have ever posted on this site.**

 **So the Wraith is done with, we won't be seeing much of her in the future. Danny's starting to come around to the Christmas idea and got some character development, Bob the Determined had a brief comeback, and I remembered that Cujo was a character!**

 **Oops.**

 **Anyway, for the record, Stalhrim is a material in Skyrim that's also referred to as** _ **enchanted ice**_ **. I figured that was a good idea for Danny.**

 **Now then, time for reviews!**

 **Gold Testament: He knows why now and he's starting to move on. It might come up a bit in the future though.**

 **Kimera20: Happy birthday! In about five months that is, let's if I can remember in December!**

 **Nightmaster000: Glad you thought so!**

 **Anamariaw28: Your love is most welcome!**

 **That's all for now folks! Sam is going to make an appearance next chapter. There's going to be less focus on ghosts and more on the humans.**

 **Until next we meet!**

 **Bye!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	28. Meanwhile At The Ranch (I mean Amity)

**Hello, hello!**

 **Show of hands, who's missed me?**

 **Actually, I can't see you raise your hands so it doesn't really matter if you do or not, but feel free to do so anyway! I haven't updated this since July after all.**

 **Admittedly, if you read my other stories it has only been a week since I've written anything. But as someone who has followed authors writing for multiple fandoms, really the only updates I care about are the ones for one specific fandom or another.**

 **Well, that's not entirely true.**

 **The truth is that when I started reading on this site, I only cared about DBZ and then when I was looking on an author's profile for other DBZ stories, I saw another story that caught my eye, one for Danny Phantom. And thus, everything changed.**

 **I could waste a bunch of time and words on the specifics, but my progression through fanfiction is not what anyone is reading this chapter for, now is it?**

 **Now then, last time this stuff happened:**

 **-Danny found out who the Wraith was and why she killed people**

 **-Danny and co. went to save her next victim who happened to be Sam's mom**

 **-Wraith thought she killed her but actually didn't (not that anyone told her)**

 **-Christmas stuff happened!**

 **That's about it for last chapter. If you want the details and cameos and whatever else i put in there, go back and reread it.**

 **Anyway, not too much of the main ghost crew this chapter, it's time to look on the human side of things.**

* * *

 _Sam Manson POV, Manson Mansion, December 25th…_

Sam stared at the ruins of her family home with so many emotions flowing through her, she honestly wasn't sure what to settle bite of the december air was barely noticeable to her right now.

She was supposed to be goth, it was how she showed her independence to her parents, that she wasn't some doll for them to play dress up with and eventually marry off to some piece of shallow, third generation money.

It was so easy to show everyone doom and gloom, it was another thing to have it become your life.

First, her best friend had died, and it was her fault. So many people told her that she was in no way responsible for what happened. Tucker said he should have been a voice of reason, Jazz said she should have been paying attention to the three of them, the Fenton's blamed themselves, and her parents blamed the Fentons.

But throughout it all, each separate conversation about why it wasn't her fault, her own words, egging Danny on, kept echoing in her head. And every time they echoed she wanted nothing more than to be standing there, yelling at him to not listen to her, that she never meant for anything bad to happen. Nothing bad was _supposed_ to happen. They still had the rest of their lives ahead of them!

Except now one of them didn't.

And now, after months of fighting ghosts that wanted nothing more than to make life in Amity Park a living hell, her house gets burned down, by a ghost. Possibly multiple ghosts if all the devices that she, Tucker and the adult Fentons had pointed at it meant anything.

Not to mention it had been burned down on Christmas, or rather Christmas Eve, but really what was the difference?

Of course she had never celebrated Christmas being Jewish, still though, the entire thing was just salt in the wound.

But beyond her house burning down, was the fact that her mother had been specifically targeted by the ghost that had done this.

She hated her parents, or at least she wanted to hate them. She wanted to loathe them for treating her like a wallflower, for acting like her opinions and thoughts didn't matter. For always telling her to stay away from Danny because his parents were "different", or to keep away from Tucker because he was "weird."

But whatever she thought of them and their opinions, about their lifestyle and actions, they were still her parents, and she had nearly lost one of them. She might have lost the other one if her father hadn't gotten out of the fire.

In an odd twist of fate, her Grandmother had actually been the safest of all them. Ironically, because she was the hospital due to numerous minor problems that she had refused to complain about until they made it nearly impossible for her to function day to day. Honestly if she hadn't been so worried about her, she would have been impressed she had been able to move around for as long as she had.

Sam decided not to think about what would have happened if her grandmother hadn't been practically forced to the hospital to get the problems dealt with before they became serious. If she had been at home during the fire and unable to get out of the house quickly enough…

Sam squeezed her eyes shut and shook herself. She really wished she could stop her mind from wandering to all the "what if's" in her life. There were far too many of them right now. What if her Mom hadn't survived the attack? What if her father hadn't managed to get out of the house? What if ghosts hadn't been attacking the city? What if she had never stupidly told Danny it would be cool to go into the Ghost Portal that killed him?

There was a reason people say that hindsight is twenty/twenty, and that reason was regret.

"-am! Sam!" Tucker's voice cut into her thought process, she straightened and then scowled at him.

"What is it?" She snapped and glared at him, she was not really in the mood to chat right now.

Tucker gave her a look, "Well I was going to ask if you how you were doing, but if you're going to bite my head off…"

Sam bit her tongue before she could give him back a rude response. Really, she hadn't been to snap at him but her current mood made it hard for her to be patient with anyone. To tell the truth she probably would have acted the same way no matter who she had been talking to.

"I'm fine." She muttered even though she was probably the exact opposite of fine right now. She was technically homeless after all, not that it mattered all too much. Most of her parent's money was in the bank so they could probably afford a new house, not to mention the mansion had been insured. She turned away to walk towards the group of vehicles parked in the driveway.

"You don't seem fine." She heard Tucker mutter under his breath before he began to follow her. She forced herself not to respond.

The fact Tucker had stuck by her side in the past several months was both comforting and confusing for Sam. The fact they got along like oil and water was the largest factor in the confusion. She knew that Danny had been the only reason they had known each other growing up, in fact, if she had to guess she would probably have hated Tucker's guts if Danny hadn't roped the trio together.

She wasn't sure if Tucker stayed friends with her out of grief for Danny or if he felt just as lost as she did now. Whatever the case, she didn't want to lose him too.

As they got closer to the loose ring of vehicles in her driveway she took stock of just what was there. An ambulance, obviously, a couple of firetrucks too, the Fenton's Ghost Assault Vehicle was there as well (much to her father's dismay, her mother wasn't in much shape to reply one way or another). Those were what she expected, but there was another vehicle there too, one that she had never seen before.

It was a van, almost entirely white, which just screamed danger to be honest. But what caught her attention were the letters printed on the side of the vehicle. G.I.W., she couldn't help but wonder what it stood for.

There were two men in white suits discussing with the Fentons. Mr. Fenton seemed eager to talk to them but Mrs. Fenton looked skeptical and even a little nervous. That alone was concerning, she didn't know what those guys wanted but they rubbed her the wrong way and her impressions of people were rarely ever wrong.

Deciding not to get involved with the Fentons right now she instead headed towards what was the lesser of two evils in this situation.

Her father.

He practically jumped when she tapped him on the shoulder. He had been staring on the burned out carcass of the house that had been in the family for the last three generations. Sam guessed that he was taking it harder than she was, he cared a lot more about the family image than she did after all. Not to mention the fact that he had grown up there and had been trying to raise her there.

"Dad, uh." She swallowed trying to find the right words for this. Most of her relationship with her parents over the past few years had been her grunting at them and refusing to do what they told her to do. "Are you doing alright?" She asked weakly, honestly she felt like kicking herself, really that was the best she could come up with?

Her father stared at her in surprise as though he hadn't expected any concern from her. She couldn't particularly blame him but she really wanted to talk to him right now, just to make sure he was real, to make sure he wasn't going to disappear. To be honest it made her kind of angry that she felt this way after going to far to prove her individuality to her parents but right now? She wasn't sure how much it was worth to be her own person.

"Alright?" He muttered rhetorically looking thoughtful, he sighed in a way that made him seen broken. "No, not right now. But…" he shook his head and chuckled humorlessly. "Who am I kidding? Things are a mess! It's not like I can just tell you everything is fine and you'll listen to me will you Samantha."

Sam scowled about to say something but her father kept talking. "I don't even know what to make of things anymore, ghosts! Targeting your mother of all people! And after everything with Mom…" He choked up a bit. Sam found herself remembering that while her grandmother was quite possibly the member of the family she was closest to, she was also her father's mother. It was one of those things you knew peripherally but never truly thought about.

"I really don't need to pretend to be a pillar of stability right now do I?" Her father wondered out loud. "Maybe this is a sign, maybe it's time to leave this messed up town."

Sam's eyes went wide. "But we can't just leave!"

"Why not Samantha?" Her father asked, "Despite whatever you might think, you are my daughter and I love you, despite any… oddities." He continued quickly, "And this town is not safe for you or anyone, if other parents are smart they'll be packing up their own families and skipping town. Now that this has happened once, what's to stop it from happening again."

"The Fentons will protect people." Sam replied immediately, inside she was seething, try to talk to her father in a civilized fashion and suddenly he wants to make her leave town.

"They didn't stop this from happening did they? They're two people, they won't be able to protect everyone! Besides they can't even protect their own family, how can they protect anyone else's?" He finished at which point Sam stiffened and clenched her fists.

"Well, at least they don't try and control every aspect of their kids lives!" She snapped, voice raising perhaps more than she meant it too.

"I'm not arguing about this with you Samantha, your mother could have died last night, we could have died last night. And don't you dare try to turn this into an argument about us respecting your opinions. You know that has nothing to do with this." Her father met her glare right back.

Sam growled and stomped off, ignoring her father calling her name. She tries to talk to him and what does he do? Tell her how they were going to control her life even more!

Tucker who had hung back during her "talk" with her father now picked up the pace and followed her again. He wisely kept quiet about that subject, of course that didn't mean he was silent.

"So who do you think the ghosts were this time? The readings are all jumbled and not to mention faint." He grumbled glaring at the device in his hands.

Sam took a few deep breaths trying to calm down. As much as she hated to admit it, her father had a point about the Fentons not being able to be everywhere at once. There were the Ghoskateers of course, but they were all still in training, and she and Tucker had to go to school.

But what other options did they have?

As she approached the Fentons, it was just in time to watch the white van pull out of the driveway. Mr. Fenton went off to do anything between hunting for any remaining ghosts to eating a snack, while Mrs. Fenton was scowling in deep thought.

"What was that all about?" Sam asked as she came up to the older woman.

"An offer I want to refuse but not sure I can afford to." Mrs. Fenton muttered darkly before shaking herself and giving her arms a brief rub, assumedly to help warm them up a bit.

"Any ideas about which ghosts were behind this?" Tucker asked, hoping the more advanced technology at the adult Fentons disposal would be more effective than his practically bootlegged version.

"Unfortunately, no." Mrs. Fenton said angrily, "Ugh, I wish I had stayed up last night and checked the radar like I want but Jack and I had that argument about that idiotic belief of his and then it just got worse and, grr!" She threw her arms up in frustration.

"Are you two okay?" Tucker asked after sharing a brief glance with Sam.

"We're fine." She said quickly, too quickly if Sam were to think about it. But before the subject could be pressed Mr. Fenton returned.

"Hey Sammy, your mom's uhh, come out of shock and she's saying some weird stuff." He said looking a bit confounded.

"Weird how?" Sam asked darkly. Her mother loved being the textbook definition of normal, at least her father tried to act like she was a person, although a poor job of it in her opinion.

"Weird in that she's saying that while a ghost was trying to kill her, another few were the ones that saved her."

* * *

 **And I'm going to end the chapter there.**

 **This almost didn't get done, I literally had almost no time to work on this with everything I've been doing the last couple of days.**

 **But it's done and I can enter the final stretch for season one!**

 **Some of you will hate the next five to ten chapters, others will love it! Some of you won't care less. I don't give a damn! The only things that matters is that I manage to hold your interest!**

 **Also, in case it wasn't obvious this is from Sam's POV so some, if not all, of her opinions are biased. Her father isn't trying to take control of her life as he is trying to save it and she's under enough stress with the events of the past few months on her mind.**

 **So for those of you who are going to say that her thoughts and actions don't make sense, that's the thing about emotions, they're not logical and they're difficult for most people to predict.**

 **Unrelated note, recently this story has been overtaken in favourites by Sealed Away and Village Idiots, I take this as a personal challenge and therefore challenge all of you to put this story back at the number one spot! (It's kinda my favourite and I want people to know it)**

 **Anyway, let's get to the reviews!**

 **Gold Testament: Be patient, there's a lot of story left (but some revelations might be coming up soon[ish depends on how long it takes me to get the chapters out])**

 **Dredd2012: Glad you think so!**

 **ReaperGenesis32: Yeah, I got tired of all the stories where Walker and Danny just absolutely can't get along. They still hate each others guts, but at least they're trying to be civil. And it really depends on the legal system and what evidence they have.**

 **Kimera20: Two months to go! And yeah Wraith is done for good, and well, Danny is working on it.**

 **Unclear expulsion: You're not the first to bring that up. When I get around to editing that one, I'll fix the error.**

 **Basket in Nutcase: Good job calling that! Albeit, a bit late to the show but well done all the same. And yes, nothing like that ever happened. Just a dream.**

 **Umbra . Venator: Thanks!**

 **Feurigge: Maddie and Jack will learn more about how ghosts really work as time goes on. As for Sam, give it a chapter or two. **

**DP-Observant69: I sent a PM but in the case you didn't get it, I will explain here. I have many stories, I try to update at least one of them every week, this month I've been going over the ones I haven't updated in awhile and hopefully I can keep up the pace (on this one at least). Sometimes I miss a week, you don't have to start worrying I'm dead until I miss two weeks with no explanation. If I abandon a story I'm not going to cop out with a simple AN, I'm going to explain why I've doing so and then give a rundown of the remaining plot so you all don't feel completely robbed.**

 **Well that's all for now folks!**

 **See you next week for an update that has been a Long. Damn. Time. Coming.**

 **SS is coming back!**

 **Until then! Bye!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	29. Youngblood's Explanations

**Behold mere mortals! It is time for the newest chapter! Tremble in your boots before the power of fanfiction!**

 **Assuming you're currently trembling, let's get on with the intro. Once again I find myself updating far later than I meant to and I have considered a possible solution that I will now implore you all to consider and (if at all possible) enter your input on.**

 **My idea is to focus on one story a month, updating every weekend for that month, and then working a different story for the next month. This allows a story to get multiple updates in a short amount of time, the obvious downside is that it could take months in order for readers to see the next update. But considering my current method is just work on whatever and hope I finish it in time, I'm seriously considering this.**

 **The only other option I have is to focus on a story until it's done but being completely realistic that might have me stuck on one story for up to a year. That would be even worse.**

 **Currently I have eight active stories, each would get a month with four updates, that's 4-8 updates a year, per story. Which is why I'm actually asking you, my readers, rather than just making it into proverbial law. I'll be mentioning it in whichever other stories I update during December in order to get more opinions.**

 **On to less serious matters, it's time to continuing our tale!**

 **Last time, this stuff happened!**

 **-Sam's house burned down (debatably the chapter before but it's still important)**

 **-Sam had a mini-fight with her dad!**

 **-Jack and Maddie met the GiW!**

 **-Pamela admitted ghosts saved her!**

 **But most of that won't matter this chapter, at least until the end.**

* * *

 _Danny POV, Youngblood's Pirate Ship, December 29th…_

"I have to admit, you've made it a lot further with this than I thought you would." Ember commented conversationally as she observed the fruit of the younger ghost's labor. It wasn't quite a compliment unfortunately, and Youngblood noticed.

"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Youngblood asked through a narrowed gaze, just daring her to elaborate.

Ember took the bait and answered, "I'm just saying that historically, you don't have the best track record for actually finishing things, remember that time you decided to be a superhero and build yourself a secret lair, instead of just usingyour _actual lair?_ "

"That was years ago." Youngblood pouted, looking away and scowling.

"It was literally six months ago." Ember complained.

Youngblood pirate ship had been vastly improved since the last time Danny had been there, it now had a main mast, no sail yet but that was surely to come. The deck itself had been repaired since the fight with Skulker, he wasn't quite sure how "ghost wood" worked but if he had to guess he'd say that most of the deck had to have been pulled up and relaid in order to make it appear pristine once again.

Apart from the obviously repaired deck, the railings appeared to be more detailed now, as though they had been carved out a significant amount, they were also smoother leading Danny to assume they had gone through some sort of sanding process. It did make him briefly wonder about getting splinters as a ghost, it was one of those weird thoughts that are essentially unrelated to anything else but still interesting to consider.

He pushed the odd idea of glowing ghostly tweezers out of his head, he forced his mind back onto the topic at hand.

Due to multiple unforeseen circumstances, he and Ember had been unable to properly question Youngblood about the _freaking army of skeleton ghost pirates,_ that he apparently kept below deck on his ship. Seriously, when and how does someone get something like that and then keep it hidden away? Especially a ghost like Youngblood who, quite frankly, loved showing off whenever he got the chance to do so?

"Ember, could you not antagonize him right now?" Danny asked the pop star ghost in a somewhat exasperated tone. They wanted him in a good mood, considering the pirate themed ghost usually told them about whatever happened to cross his mind, the fact he had avoided explaining how exactly he had a small army at his beck and call, was a bit concerning. So if they had him in a good mood, he was more likely to tell them without too much kicking and fighting.

"Fine." Ember muttered crossing her arms and making sure it was obvious she was none too pleased about it. Thankfully she refrained from making any further comments at anyone's expense, neither his nor Youngblood's.

"Okay then, Youngblood." Danny turned his attention to the technically older ghost. "I feel like this is obvious but I know that I'm going to have to ask anyway, why and how do you have a skeleton ghost pirate crew like this is Pirate of the Caribbean?"

Youngblood looked at him confused. "What's Pirates of the Caribbean?"

"It's a movie," Danny offhandedly replied, one of the few memories clear memories he had from when he was alive was of watching the skeleton pirates in that movie, which was ironic kind of. "Also not the point of my question, the skeleton crew." He gestured around loosely. "Below deck." He pointed downward. "Explain please." He brought his hands up in a folded position and waited for the other ghost boy to answer.

Youngblood's expression instantly switched to something far more shifty. Danny had to resist quirking an eyebrow, whatever this was the other ghost clearly _did not_ want to talk about it. Maybe they shouldn't push the subject and wait for him to tell them in his own time.

Then again, Youngblood being stuck at the age he was might mean that would never happen. He wasn't exactly mature and wouldn't become so with age. Most ghosts tended to remain, both mentally and physically, at the age they died, frozen in a shattered mirror. Occasionally they would be put through an event or circumstances that would force them to change themselves in some way, but that was less than one percent of the Ghost Zone's population. The chances of it happening to Youngblood were minuscule.

Ember decided to make the decision for him.

"Start talking dipstick or I'm going to start beating." She then proceeded to defy the laws of all known ecto-physics by cracking her non-existent knuckles in a threatening gesture.

For a moment, Youngblood looked like he was going to try and put up a fight, maybe even win considering the reason for their visit was below deck right now. Danny tensed in order to break up the potential fight, but someone else stopped the event before it could even start.

It was Bones surprisingly, the parrot had been quiet up until that point. He interjected by giving Youngblood a light yet sharp jab to the head to get his attention off of the pop star ghost he had just been prepared to fight with.

"Oh just stop causing a mess and tell them already." The parrot demanded in a scolding tone of voice, as though a parent speaking to a naughty child. His tone lightened some with his follow-up. "It's going to come out eventually, better you tell them now then do it later when in the middle of a crisis."

"What crisis?" Youngblood muttered mockingly, still looking quite a bit angry, but now that Danny was able to have a closer look, there might have been a small amount of… fear? Fear of what?

"Just tell them or else." The parrot ordered, glaring, this probably would have been more intimidating if he hadn't been perched on Youngblood's shoulder.

"I don't have to listen to you." Youngblood muttered darkly, seemingly having forgotten that Ember and Danny were still there with him, listening to this conversation which honestly seemed to Danny as though it should be held in a more private setting.

"You should though." Bones declared before flapping his wings, generating the momentum required to lift off from Youngblood's shoulder. "I'll leave you to it then."

Youngblood glared after the parrot for a moment before sighing and turning back to Danny and Ember. He regarded them for a moment and then asked. "I'm guessing neither of you are willing to just drop the subject and move on with things?"

"We don't exactly have any plans right now." Ember pointed out, Danny resisted snorting, he kind of had half a dozen ghosts left to catch, none of which he had any idea where to find, not even considering how he was going to be able to actually manage to catch them. But he was willing to put off that job in order to have this conversation, he had time to spare.

"Okay, so... umm…" Youngblood looked frustrated, clearly he had never planned on having this talk and thus had no idea on how to start explaining it to them. Unfortunately for him, Danny and Ember were not going to cut him much slack to figure out what to say. They were talking about this now, whether he knew what to say or not. It wasn't like they were going to judge him for floundering over a few words or anything, this wasn't a formal event.

Youngblood shook his head in a somewhat useless attempt to clear his mind. "Basically… you two know how you have elemental cores?"

"Yeah." Danny nodded before Ember could say something sarcastic and ruin the tense mood. Adding some humor in might be helpful in some tense situations but this clearly meant a lot to Youngblood and he didn't want to make it seem like they were lessening the importance of this information.

"Well… I don't have one of those." Youngblood announced as though this were some massive bomb to drop. To him it had been fairly obvious the childish ghost didn't have any elemental powers to speak of. "I mean I do have one, duh, but it does… other stuff."

Danny thought back to the books he had borrowed from Ghost Writer. He had mainly focused on the types of Cores that the ghosts who had escaped Walker's prison had. Most of them had elemental cores, but not all of them.

Skulker for instance had a core known as a technology core, it allowed him to integrate technology as though it were an extension of himself, and considering he was just a little blob in the head of the armor, that made a lot of sense. He actually kind of wondered how Walker and his goons had never been able to figure that out before, especially considering they knew what kind of core type he had.

He wasn't sure if shadow could be counted as an elemental core, considering it wasn't one of the traditional elements (earth, fire, air and water) or even one of the periodic ones that were accepted in the modern era. Though from what Danny had seen those elements essentially did not exist in the ghost zone for all intents and purposes and that made a bit of sense. Ghost ice was one thing, but ghost hydrogen? That just sounded idiotic.

There was another one that only one of ghosts he was chasing had and that was a magic core. That sounded kind of dumb to him but given the fact he was currently an actual ghost, who was he to discount the existence of magic? Still, he had no idea what to make of it, especially considering the title of the ghost in question, "The Wishing Ghost."

But even with this information, he was still unsure what to make of Youngblood's pirate clue, or how whatever core type he had could possibly create or affect such a thing. Maybe he should have payed more attention to the literal dozens of other core types that a ghost could have.

"Okay so my core type is a control core." Youngblood announced clearly expecting some sort of reaction. Neither Danny nor Ember gave him one however.

"Never heard of it." Ember announced in a bored tone and motioned for him to elaborate.

"Oh…" Youngblood furrowed his brow in deep thought, clearly he had thought just announcing his core type would explain everything, or at least offer some sense to it. Which it did, sort of. The control thing made sense if he was commanding an army of skeletal ghost pirates but that did not exactly explain how he got those pirates in the first place.

"Okay, so basically a control core lets me take ectoplasm and well… control it." Youngblood looked lost for the right words. "Ya know, shape it, make it do… stuff!"

"That explains almost nothing." Danny told him as honestly and bluntly as he could manage.

"Look, I kind of figured you would know what it was and have that stereotype about how ghost with control cores turn newborn ghosts into their unwilling slaves so I'm kind of not sure about what to do here." Youngblood explained as the rubbed his chin in further thought, probably putting more effort into his mind than in the past three days.

Danny was willing to just continue with the conversation until exactly _what_ Youngblood had just said caught up to him. "Wait- What?!"

Youngblood held his hands up placating gesture, "It's a stupid myth, because I can turn ectoplasm into constu- constra cun-" he stumbled over the word without his parrot there to aid him.

"Construct?" Ember suggested only slightly mocking,

"Yeah that, but because ghosts with control cores can make raw ectoplasm into those, some idiots think that I'm doing it to new ghosts who haven't properly formed yet." Youngblood's body language appeared enraged. "It's not fair! It takes a lot out of me to make those guys move around on their own! Not to mention how long it takes me to get all of that ectoplasm just to make them!"

"Was that really why you were so worried about it, because of some dumb old stereotype? Neither of us really follow the crowd you know." Ember pointed out.

"Oh…" Youngblood trailed off looking a bit lost of his parrot returned and landed on his shoulder once more, a smug, knowing look on the skeletal face.

"Hmm, well it looks like everything worked out quite nicely. Was that really so bad?" The parrot asked.

"You knew they wouldn't have any problems didn't you, you treacherous bilge rat!" Youngblood ranted at the parrot.

Danny didn't interrupt the conversation between pirate and parrot and was just internally relieved that everything had worked out in the end. He had been really worried that there was actually something bad going on with his friend. Fear of a false belief was something else entirely and a concern that would hopefully be alleviated from now on.

After a few minutes and Youngblood had calmed down a bit and seemed to be back to normal, Danny bid the others farewell and began travelling back to his lair, he still had to work on his plans to hunt down the rest of the ghosts on Walker's list. Not to mention he had to take Cujo for a walk or else the ghost dog was going to start making a mess to show his displeasure. Or to let out his excess energy, he really wish he knew more about pet psychology.

Still, at least things were looking up, he had months left to catch the remaining ghosts, and the only hurdle seemed to be the last one on the list, he would need some help with the Ripper but he knew with help he could handle it. For the first time in awhile things were looking up for him.

* * *

 _Sam POV, Amity Park…_

Sam pulled at her purple jumpsuit a bit. It didn't really bother her but she was wondering if she should have gone with her original choice of black, instead of a color like purple. She certainly liked the color purple, but it didn't really feel like the kind of color that ghosts would be intimidated by and in which she could create an image of strength and determination.

Right now she was on her nightly patrol with Tucker, they were the only ones on patrol tonight considering the fact that the Fentons were having a Ghostkateers training session that night. Since she and Tucker were already well trained they had been sent to guard the city against "the fiends that go bump in the night", which was putting it a bit too eloquently for her tastes.

At the moment she was waiting on a street corner as Tucker ducked into a nearby store in order to use the bathroom. This annoyed her greatly considering they had started on their patrol _literally five minutes ago_. His excuse for why he didn't go before they left was the classic "I didn't need to go then."

So she was left here waiting and watching the motor-scooters (or Fenton Scooters) while her friend cleared up his tiny bladder problems.

Thankfully the night seemed peaceful enough and they had run into no problems from any ghosts thus far, nor had they heard anyone panicking yet. This gave her some time to think, which was not something she wanted to do right now.

Her dad still wanted to leave town for somewhere less ghost infested, her mom was basically a nervous wreck who kept muttering about how she was sorry and continued to insist she had been helped by a group of ghosts fighting the one trying to kill her. The Fentons seemed to doubt this but they had no evidence, besides what they already claimed to know about ghosts, to support these doubts.

She honestly did not know what to right now. She missed when life was simpler and the only things she had to worry about were passing classes, dealing with her parents outdated beliefs and making sure she had time to hang out with her friends.

Sometimes she wished they could go back to those days, in fact she did so most of the time. But they couldn't and she was left in a world without her best friend, where her parents were even worse than usual and in different ways than she was used to, and where ghosts ran wild amongst the concrete jungle of Amity park.

Sam looked along the windows of the storefront, posters, most of which advertised sales greeted her eyes, some of them advertised upcoming events but to say they were few would be an understatement. Her eyes lazily flickered over them until she came to one of the only event posters, interestingly enough it was something that really caught her attention.

It was mostly the dark colors of the background and the portrait of the creepy clown like ringmaster in the foreground but something else about it got caught her eyes, the name. Just two words.

Circus Gothica.

* * *

 **And that's the end of that chapter.**

 **The end of part one is nearly here and I ended up dropping an entire arc in order to move things along for a few reasons.**

 **One, as noted up top, my updates on this are sporadic and not at all consistent like they used to be. So I want to give you guys something to look forward to right now. Hopefully I'll be able to get my update schedule sorted sooner rather than later.**

 **Two, I couldn't justify the ending of the arc. There's no harm in telling you guys now but this chapter almost ended** _ **very**_ **differently and that's why I didn't update it last night. I've had most of it done for the last couple days but I couldn't decide whether I should go with my original plan or go to Circus Gothica.**

 **My original plan was a rehashing of the first episode of season two (the one with Desiree) and would be the reveal for Sam about Phantom being Danny's ghost. The problem is, well, I couldn't find a way to properly justify in Sam's mind, killing Danny again. Which is what would have to happen in order for the plot to move forwards. This was the deciding factor in the end. I've spent a lot of time building up Sam's guilt for "killing Danny" and suddenly having her** _ **knowingly**_ **put him to death was something that would destroy all that development.**

 **So, if someone wants that arc as an Omake in the future, I'll see what I can do. But for now? Freakshow and our favorite ghostly serial killer.**

 **Anyways, review time!**

 **DannyPhantomPhandom: And once again tonight as well!**

 **Dredd2012: More on that in the next few chapters.**

 **Feurrige: In order? No, maybe, find out somewhere in part two, and I can't answer whatever questions you don't right down!**

 **Glaciaj Flamoj: Here's the next chapter my friend!**

 **Kimera20 : Happy birth month! Sorry for the wait on the chapter again!**

 **Wolfeather101: I know what you mean and sorry for the wait, school, laziness and video games stand in my way.**

 **TheDisneyFan365: Good to be back (again [cough])**

 **Nightmaster000: Glad to hear you liked the chapter!**

 **Gold Testament: Be patient, we're almost to some of them finding out! And no guarantee the reactions will be all good.**

 **Unclear expulsion: That is why I have the "last time this happened" section in the top Author Note.**

 **SonicMax: Soon.**

 **AlienGhostWizard14: I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, and that's essentially how this story started for me, I got mad I couldn't find any good full ghost Danny stories so I wrote my own!**

 **theUTAUfan: I did it first! Cuphead ripped me off! xD**

 **Randomness : I take your commonly typed expression of a scream, as a sign you liked it.**

 **That's all for now folks, until we meet again my friends!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


	30. Two More To Go

**Welcome back once again boys and girls, it is almost time for the circus to begin!**

 **But before we can do that I need to bring some plot lines full circle as well as start to prepare things for Part 2! Which will essentially be Season 2 of the show with plenty of changes made to it (obviously).**

 **Also a few people were confused last chapter, so allow me to clarify, Sam and Tucker** _ **will**_ **be finding out that Danny is Phantom,** _ **very**_ **soon. I just won't be going with my original plan involving Desiree, who will still be making an appearance in this chapter, just without her original purpose of creating another story arc. So they're going to find out soon, not so much anyone else so sorry if you're looking forward to Jack and Maddie learning a few things but you're going to have to wait a bit longer.**

 **Anyway's today is a special day and I made sure to update today. Why? Well I'm sure some of you can figure it out simply by looking at the publish date and the update date up in the box above.**

 **Two years. I've spent two years writing this thing and I'm not done yet. To those who have stuck it out this long, thanks.**

 **Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed I'm not farther along than this but the show shall go on!**

 **Last time this stuff happened:**

 **-Danny and Ember confronted Youngblood about his Ghost Skeleton Pirate Army**

 **-They found out he has a control core, which explains a lot!**

 **-Sam and Tucker went on patrol in Amity Park!**

 **-We got a sneak preview that Circus Gothica is coming, soon…**

 **And now we continue!**

* * *

 _Danny POV, Amity Park, January 10th…_

Two ghosts left.

He only had to find two more ghosts for Walker and then he would have that damn Warden off of his back! Well at least until he committed another "offense" in his eyes, which could happen at any given time considering how annoying and convoluted that Rule Book of his was. Seriously, did Walker just write down whatever happened to be annoying him at the time?

Unfortunately for Danny, the last two ghosts were proving more trouble than they were worth. And that was just finding them, never mind the fight they were going to put up when he actually caught them!

He had really managed to plow through the ranks in the last two weeks with Youngblood and his skeleton ghost pirates helping him out. Ember was also keeping an eye out and was happy to lend a hand if he was having trouble with any of his targets, that hadn't happened too often though.

But the last two must have caught wind of what he was up too and made sure to make themselves scarce, either that or they were just really good at hiding which was also a possibility. It could be both though, but really this was all speculation and didn't really matter _since he still couldn't find them._

To be honest he was kind of surprised he hadn't seen heads or tails of these ghosts as of yet. Considering one was Desiree the Wishing Ghost, she seemed like the type to hang out around humans and use them to her own ends. Which was why he was searching for her in the human world rather than the Ghost Zone. As it turned out there was a reason why ghosts normally didn't say the words "I wish."

Humans on the other hand had no such securities against her and therefore would be ideal for fueling her powers.

Danny wasn't quite sure _why_ Desiree got stronger by making wishes come true. It didn't make too much sense since energy should be used to bring the wishes to life, even if it was her obsession. There was probably some scientific explanation for the phenomenon, he had never completed Ninth Grade science after all.

It wouldn't matter much once he found her and stopped her, as long he did it before she could grant too many wishes it would be fine. That was assuming that Desiree hadn't been granting wishes since she had escaped from Walker's prison and had just been building up her powers since then. He didn't even want to think about how powerful she would be now if that was the case.

He would get her regardless, he could call in Youngblood and Ember, maybe even Cujo, Kitty and Johnny and his shadow. Surely altogether they would be able to take her down even if she had that much power.

The other ghost he was looking for was a lot more worrying for him. More so than if Desiree had spent her time building up her powers. In fact if he found the other ghost he wouldn't call in any of his friends or allies to help, instead he would try and outsmart him before sucking him into the thermos and rushing him to Walker as fast as his ghostly speed could possibly manage.

Why? Because the other ghost was The Ripper, Butcher of the Ghost Zone.

It had taken a literal army to catch him last time. And even then they had lost a lot of ghosts before they finally managed to wear him down and take him to the prison. Like hell he was going to risk any of his friends against a monster like that. He was a freaking S-class ghost, you didn't get called an S-class for being weak.

But he couldn't begin to properly plan for the Ripper until he actually _found_ the damn psychopath! Seriously though, you would think a someone like him would be easy for Danny to find.

Fortunately or perhaps _unfortunately_ he was certain the Ripper was in Amity Park. The recent string of deaths that couldn't be linked to Wraith certainly matched with his kill style. Knife wounds all of them, in some cases the freak had _played_ with the corpses after he killed them. Just thinking about it sent shivers running up Danny's spine that had nothing to do with his ice core.

It was kind of why he was hoping to run into Desiree first.

He wished he had gone looking for her around Christmas but he had been so focused on Wraith back than that he had completely forgotten about Desiree. He probably could have found her hanging out around any given mall Santa, listening for kids to tell the man in red what they _wished for,_ for Christmas.

He had an idea, though. It was a kind of insane idea that was liable to get him caught and/or ended but he didn't have any others and he wasn't about to ask Jazz to steal from thei- _her_ parents for him.

Months earlier, he had broken the Fenton's ghost radar when they first started hunting for Walker way back when and they had probably repaired it by now. Especially with all the ghosts flying around Amity Park causing Fenton's would need a way to keep track of them all and hunt them down. It was why he wasn't using his haunt on Elms Street as much these days. They hadn't come banging down his door yet but he was sure it was only a matter of time before they did.

Danny had gotten into the Fenton Works building before, usually through the ghost portal but he was concerned that by now they would have better security measures to keep "ectoplasmic entities" out of the house. It was hard for him to be sure though considering he mainly used his entrance to the human world through his lair these days.

But he needed a way to find Desiree and the Ripper, the sooner the better so he would have to risk going after the radar at Fenton Works. He was going in alone with his Ghost Ice Sword and Stalhrim Shield.

So he would probably be able to handle whatever the Fenton's threw at him considering his past meetings and fight with them. They hadn't been able to beat him then but he normally flew off when the fight was over, not to mention the fact that unlike those last times he was going to be on their home turf, literally.

Who knew what new kinds of dangerous inventions they had managed to cook up since then?

 _Tucker POV, Fenton Works…_

"Kid's allow us to introduce our newest invention! The Fenton Toaster! The top of line technology in both ghost hunting and a well balanced breakfast!" Jack Fenton boomed showing off the over sized device next to him.

Tucker was all for new technologies, it was one of best parts of Ghost hunting with the Fentons. That was when their inventions actually worked and ya know, _didn't kill anyone again._ He fought back the anger, regret and sadness that welled up inside. Six months and he still wasn't over Danny's death yet. It made sense though, they had been best friends for as long as he could remember, and now he was just… gone.

Sam had taken his death pretty hard, maybe even harder than Tucker did. She blamed herself for it after all and as far as Tucker knew, she still did. He honestly didn't know how to help her so he had said his peace, stuck by her side and tried not to start any fights with her like they used to have. Danny wasn't there to play mediator anymore, so he resisted the urge to call her out on her rabbit food lunches.

But even with Danny gone life had to continue on, even with the dead coming through the ghost portal and causing havoc. He sometimes wondered why the Fentons didn't just turn it off, it would probably solve the ghost problem, but then again they would go back to being crackpots and Tucker wouldn't have an excuse to come over and see their cool new inventions anymore, as well as their new… inventions.

Case and point, the over sized toaster than Mr. Fenton has just introduced the the Ghostkateers.

One of the kids raised her hand. "Excuse me, Mr. Fenton, sir?"

"What is it girl-o?" Mr. Fenton asked exuberantly, clearly excited about his new invention even if nobody else in the room shared his enthusiasm for it. Not even his wife who stood off to the side somewhat awkwardly. She had a pair of tweezers in her hand and was poking around the inside of her ectoplasmic pistol.

"Well, I was just wondering, how can a toaster help us fight ghosts?" The girl asked in confusion, her brother snickered next to her but shut up quickly when she elbowed him in the ribs.

"Everyone knows that you can't fight ghosts without a well balanced breakfast to start your day!" Mr. Fenton explained. "Just what will help you wake up better than a delicious slice of Fenton Toast!" The toaster popped revealing two slightly charred pieces of bread, vaguely shaped like Mr. Fenton himself.

"Who wants some?" he asked.

Before anyone could answer, a war cry from Mrs. Fenton caught their attention. "Freeze Ghost!" Her ecto pistol was trained on one of the work tables nearby. Above said table was a floating box that looked to be a radar of some sort. Tucker then snapped to attention when he realized it was the Fenton Radar, the new one anyway considering the last one had been destroyed by ghosts.

The ghost in question, realizing the jig was up, allowed himself to fade into visibility. "Uh… I'm just borrowing this?" He suggested, a weak smile on features Tucker almost immediately recognized.

Phantom. That cheeky bastard had literally walked into a room full of ghost hunters and tried to take a radar right out from under them. He was on his feet pointing a probably useless ectoplasmic pistol at him while Sam and a few other kids who had taken to ghost hunting more competently than others mirrored their actions. The rest of the group either freaked out and ran for cover or fumbled with their own weapons (and in one case pointed it the wrong way.)

"Okay then…" Phantom glanced around at the room, eyes flicking from one weapon to the next. "Any chance we can talk about this?"

"No." Mrs. Fenton said with finality and fired the first blast. Phantom dropped the radar back on the table and brought the shield he was holding up, deflecting the blast. It bounced around the lab for a few seconds causing everyone else to duck for cover, including Tucker. They may not be overly harmful to humans but those blasts still hurt like a punch in the gut.

Tucker looked up in time to see Phantom wrap his shield arm around the radar and move forward faster than a human possibly could. He used the ice sword in his other hand to cut the pistol that Mrs. Fenton was holding in half. The skilled ghost hunter immediately dropped it and lashed out with a roundhouse kick at the ghost in front of her who quickly went intangible.

Before anyone could stop him he jumped into the air and flew straight through the ceiling and out of the lab.

Everyone in the room was silent for a moment, the only sound coming from a device the blast that was sparking every other second, and the constant hum of the ghost portal on the other side of the room.

Mr. Fenton broke the silence with a call to action "EVERYONE TO THE FENTON MOBILE!"

* * *

 _Danny POV, Same Time, Rapidly Speeding Away…_

He was fairly certain that could have gone much better for him. At the very least he probably should have waited for the meeting to be over so he could go in and grab the radar without causing a scene and likely putting a dozen or so ghost hunters of various degrees of training after him

Oh well live and learn.

Except that he was dead so... die and learn? Dead and learn? Ghost and learn? _Haunt_ and learn! That sounded the best. He was going to use that whenever he got the chance to now. Youngblood would get a kick out of it and tt would probably annoy Ember in an amusing way which was a bonus in his book.

He glanced down at the over sized radar tucked under his arm. He didn't remember it being this big, but on the other hand it also felt more durable than last time. The Fentons had probably expected him to try breaking it again like last time. He probably could even if it would be a bit harder than last time.

After a good three minutes of flying a random direction he slowed down and landed on a nearby rooftop.

He set the radar on the ground and kneeled down to get a good look at it. He tapped the smaller dot, it lit up brighter and produced a weird power rating from a scale he wasn't familiar with. He ignored that and focused on the name that had appeared next to it. He was guessing this was Desiree since the dot seemed to be smaller.

Which meant the other _larger_ dot was…

It was probably a very good thing he had taken this from the Fentons before they had a chance to go after the Ripper. They would have just gotten themselves killed and left Jazz an orphan and the town defenseless. Even if they caused various problems they were the only people protecting it from ghosts other than him. And he probably wouldn't be doing that for much longer either.

 **YoU cAn'T lEaVe ThEm DeFeNsElEsS.**

Danny winced and shook his head. It had been awhile since his obsession had last acted up like that. He wasn't leaving them defenseless he justified to himself and hopefully his core, they would have the Fentons protecting them along with that ragtag group of ghost hunters helping them out.

He ignored the fact he didn't feel convinced and instead look at the name of the building Krueger Warehouse.

Time for him to catch a genie.

He stood up and debated leaving the radar here. Odds were the Fentons had someway of tracking it and would come and pick it up while he was gone. But if he brought it with him they would just follow him to Desiree and cause problems there. And he couldn't just destroy it or he would have no way to track the Ripper down.

This was an annoying conundrum. He couldn't bring it back to his haunt either or the Fentons world just track it down there. Then they would know where he hung out in the human world _and_ have a way to access his lair. That was probably the worst option.

But if he just left it here then the Fenton's could find it and then _they_ would probably try and go after the Ripper themselves. That was just a slaughter waiting to happen.

After a moment of consideration he decided to just leave it here. Maybe the Fenton's didn't have a way to track it and if they did he would just steal it again and keep them from going after the Ripper as well as giving him a way to find the S-class ghost.

With that decided he flew off in the direction of Desiree, unaware as another group of ghosts arrived on the radar, coming from out of town.

Krueger Warehouse wasn't that hard to find, it was in the rundown part of town. It was also clearly abandoned, probably why Desiree had decided to camp out here. Out of sight and out of mind, it would give her time to prepare herself for whatever she was planning.

Danny mentally prepared himself as he phased through the wall. He had no idea what he might be facing in here, Desiree pumped on power from granting wishes over the time she had laid here in wait, a well laid trap for anyone who came after her? He couldn't be sure, he saw a light on the far side of the warehouse and silently floated towards it.

He silently drew his sword as he approached, he heard voices coming from behind a wall of crates, also… crying? Did the genie-like ghost have people trapped in here for some reason? Without a moment to spare he quickly flew through the stack intangibly and saw something that he would never forget.

Desiree was there, in an old recliner chair with a blanket over her, and a small TV perched on a cinderblock in front of her. On the edge of the chair arm was a box of tissues and the genie ghost was crying her eyes out as she watched the screen.

"Is that daytime television?" Danny asked out loud as he came around to stand beside Desiree in her chair. It certainly looked like she was watching Soap Operas, but it seemed so absurd.

"It's just so _sad_!" the wishing ghost sobbed, blowing into a tissue. "Bob loves Laura but Laura loves Steve who is secretly having an affair with Bob's mother!" The ghost explained rather poorly in Danny's opinion as he had no context for who any of those characters were. Unless it was Bob from the Ghost Zone which he doubted.

"That's sad…" Danny tried awkwardly as Desiree continued to cry. "Err, so do you mind coming with me to Walker? Cause he's kinda threatening me and my friends with a milenium long sentence…" He trailed off as Desiree glared at him and rose from her chair, tears quickly drying.

"Just wishful thinking then?" Danny quipped as the genie blasted him through the wall of crates and into the main area of the empty warehouse. Wood splintered around him and he crashed into the floor hard enough to crack it.

"Oww…" He groaned as he pushed himself up from the debris. "If you didn't want to come you could have just said so!"

"Do you know who I am little ghost!" Desiree shouted. "Your hopes, dreams and desires fuel my power! You cannot possibly hope to defeat me!"

"I wish that I could." Danny said jokingly but gaped when Desiree froze and her hands glowed again.

"Your… Wish… Is… My… Command…" She ground out and the glow faded. She didn't do anything, just floated there with an annoyed look on her face.

"Umm… so what now?" Danny asked somewhat confused.

"Just take me to that bastard Walker already." She snapped angrily, "I can't beat my own powers."

"That "granting every wish you hear" thing must be a huge problem for you." Danny pointed out as he floated closer and pulled out the his thermos.

"It really is." She groaned and disappeared in a flash of light.

That was… shockingly easy. Danny honestly hadn't expected it to be over that quickly, but as he glanced at the thermos in his hand and ensured that, yes, it was real, and yes it did have Desiree trapped in it, he found himself at a loss.

He had almost done it! Every ghost on Walker's list except for one! Problem was he had no idea if he could manage capturing him.

For now he would take Desiree to Walker then he would start to plan, maybe he could loan out Youngblood's Ghost Skeleton pirate army. After all…

The Ripper was waiting.

* * *

 **And that's the end of this chapter!**

 **Wooh! Danny confronts the Ripper next time and Circus Gothica kicks off!**

 **It's all very exciting realizing that I'm almost done with part one/ season one of this story. Next Season has so many characters coming, Pariah Dark, Vlad, Dani, Anomalus! They're all gonna be there!**

 **Anyway to those who have stuck it out all this time I thank you, to reviewers and followers and favoriters, and guests and those of you who just lurk in the background not actually following the story but still keeping up with it, thanks to all of you.**

 **Well then, time for reviews!**

 **Arthur Moon: Yes it was and so is this one!**

 **Tsukiko K: Don't worry, they are going to find out, that hasn't changed. What has changed is **_**how**_ **they are going to find out.**

 **Dredd2012: Indeed he is.**

 **Feurrige : You'll just have to wait and see what happens and glad you understand the struggle.**

 **Guest: That would have been funny and maybe I'll use it someday, but that won't be in the near future.**

 **Glaciaj Flamoj: Umm, OOOO?**

 **Kimera20: Yep, Circus Gothica isn't quite the end all but it sets off the final events of this part.**

 **This-Li'l-Fan-Girl: Praise the glorious sun my friend!**

 **NoToLogins: I did not intend to dress Danny up like Kirito, he's wearing a cloak not a coat.**

 **Cinthya: His obsession is still around, I made sure to bring that up this chapter.**

 **BeeTheBee: You my friend just read the hilarity that is Monty Python's Flying Circus, parodied in Danny Phantom.**

 **XxNightMareX: I am glad you liked his inclusion in this story!**

 **That's all for this time folks, once again thanks for being part of the journey. We're not done yet so hold on to your hats we got a long way to go!**

 **Next week I'll probably be updating Village Idiots, after that… I'm not sure yet! Maybe I'll do this one again, or Son Siblings, I will figure it out when I get there!**

 **Until we get to meet again my friends!**

 **R &R**

 **~FriTik**


	31. The Road to Hell

**And the scrolls have foretold of dark text on the net! FriTIk fanfic writer, ancient power unbound and the power to write the next chapter!**

 **So I'm back as mentioned in the notice along with the new chapter, as promised!**

 **Anyway it has been a significant amount of time since last I posted and while the chapters should get consistent again shortly for the next week or two things are going to be hectic so expect some consistency probably around the middle of June.**

 **Moving along this chapter begins the finale of part one, which is going to be about three to four chapters. I'm quite excited for it and have been planning it for almost two years now!**

 **So last time this stuff happened:**

 **-Danny was planning how to capture the last two ghosts**

 **-Danny doesn't want his friends to fight the Ripper**

 **-The Fentons were robbed by that evil spook Phantom!**

 **-Desiree "fought" Danny and lost**

 **And now for the continuation!**

* * *

 _Walker's Prison…_

"I will be honest punk, I am begrudgingly impressed." Walker admitted as Desiree was guided off to her cell, muttering curses the whole way there. "I didn't think you would make it this far along."

"Gee, thank you for your ringing endorsement." Danny rolled his eyes. Even when the bastard of a Warden complimented him, the pale ghost still managed to find a way to insult him while doing so.

"Don't get snide with me punk. You are on my turf." Walker glared.

Danny conceded that point. He was not sure how well he'd be able to fight off an entire prison considering how well it went last time. "Well there's only one more on that damn list you gave me and as much as it pains me to ask." he winced theatrically to prove his point. "Do you have any _advice_ on how to deal with the Ripper."

"Never thought I'd see the day you'd actually ask for that." Walker muttered under his breath but Danny still caught it. He decided not to comment on it though, partially for his own sanity and partially because he had no desire whatsoever to start a big scene over it.

Walker quickly gave his tidbit of advice. "When going after him, hit him hard, hit him fast and be ready to run like hell. I don't care how strong you've gotten or how good you think you are, in a fair fight you don't stand a chance against him. Your best bet is to wear him down and catch him in that soup can of yours while he's not capable of dodging or fighting back."

"So kind of like how you managed to catch him way back when right?" Danny concluded but was surprised by Walker laughing at the suggestion.

"Is that what people say we did?" He asked rhetorically before elaborating. "We didn't weaken him, the psycho feeds on death and carnage. We did the opposite, we filled him up until he was full power and then we kept on filling. His power became to much for him and his physical form shut down as he tried to keep his core from ripping itself apart. Then we dragged him to his cell and threw away the key."

Danny blinked at the Ghost Zone's Warden. "Remind me how many guards died during that fight?" He asked accusingly.

Walker had the decency to look away and cough into his fist a few times rather than meet Danny's accusing look. "Not important, what matters is that we overwhelmed him with everything we had, I doubt you have enough friends to send them at the Ripper one at a time to do the same, and even if you did, you don't seem the type."

"What? The type of person who sends my friends to their ends?" Danny snapped angrily at what Walker was insinuating.

"No, the type who does what needs to be done, no matter what it takes or how painful it may be for you or anyone else." Walker turned back to Danny and glared down at him. "The type of person who can lead."

He stared silently at the Warden for a moment before snorting and turning away barely masking his anger.

"Well maybe I don't want to be a leader then." He called back as he stormed out of the prison. The guards in his wake wisely chose to stay out of his way as he left the heavily fortified facility in a mix of anger, annoyance and a bit of confusion.

Anger and annoyance at Walker's words. Sacrificing people he cared about for some kind of greater good? What the hell was that pale nut going on about. But he was confused at why the walking warden would bring this up now. It seemed a bit odd and out of the blue for the guy to suddenly start talking about this.

Danny shook himself as he launched into the air and soared in the vastness of the Ghost Zone. He could worry about Walker and his weird stuff later for now he had some mis-placed aggression to work off. Either on the Box Ghost or some hapless floating rocks in the Infinite Realms.

You know, whichever he came across first really.

* * *

 _Danny's Lair, Some Time Later…_

Danny sighed as he tossed his cloak onto his bed, it would be there when he got back and he did not want to risk having anything to slow him down or act as extra apparel to grasp onto or get caught during the oncoming fight. It was still kind of weird, even if it wasn't made up of his own ectoplasm like the rest of his clothes he had become pretty attached to the thing, it did kind of help with the spooky ghost look.

He slid the Stalhrim shield onto his back and felt the pommel of his ice sword at his hip. This was without a doubt going to be the hardest thing he had ever attempted, in life or in death. Most teenagers did not attempt to go up against mass murdering ghostly psychopaths. Then again, why the heck would he want to be normal?

As he prepared himself, physically and mentally, Danny was careful not to let the possibility that he might fail, that this might be the last thing he ever did enter his mind. There were plenty of "what if's" in both life and death. He wasn't going to spend his time agonizing whether he was going to get ended fighting this psychopath, besides, better him who had a chance than any of the innocent people he had already killed.

He hadn't told any of his friends about what he was going to be doing. Not Ember, not Youngblood, not Johnny or Kitty. No one knew he was going off to fight the Ripper, it was better that way, no one else would have to get hurt or dragged into this mess. He had managed to stop most of the other ghosts on his own, what was one more going to do?

Still, Danny decided to leave a note that he would be gone for a few days, he left what exactly he would be doing during those few days intentionally vague. Hopefully none of them would come looking for him until after he had dealt with the Ripper. Until then, they would hopefully be fine on their own, what was the worst they could get up to without him there? Try to take over the world again?

He made sure to pat Cujo on the head before he left, the little green dog whined at him but he had already made it very clear that the ghostly canine was to stay here at the lair and wait for him. Cujo was a pretty strong dog but he really did not want to see who came out on top if he were to fight against a serial killer.

So with that he left the Ghost Zone and entered his haunt in the human world. The house had seen better days. He still had not managed to get it repaired after Wraith had torn through it. There was still blood stains from that whole mess. Also a gaping hole in the wall and some charred furniture.

Danny could probably get it fixed after he finished up with the Ripper and Walker. Or maybe not actually, the only reason they needed an easy access point to the human world was because he was on this whole crazy ghost hunt thing. Since he was literally at the point of completing that he would not be needing an easy way in and out without going through the Fenton's first. Still maybe he should keep it around in case of emergencies, or to visit Jazz. Or whatever else happened to come up really.

He exited the house quickly enough and started scanning the streets from the sky. About fifteen minutes in he realized that this was going nowhere fast. Unfortunately he could not really remember where he left the Fenton's Ghost Radar so that idea was out. He really should have just dragged that thing back to his haunt when he had the chance and then gone after Desiree, oh well, nothing he could do about it now.

But the problem persisted, he had no reliable means to track the Ripper at this current point in time. Cujo might be able to track him but he had no desire to get Cujo involved in this mess, no one was going to be ending his dog on his watch. Even if he had Cujo along, there would be no way for him to get the Ripper's scent trail.

Dam it all, if only he had some way of getting into the Ripper's head to figure it all out. If only he knew someone who could help him do that.

Wait a second, he did know someone! But he didn't want her involved in this anymore than he wanted any of his ghostly friends involved in this. He would have to be discreet about it and not give away to much information about what he was actually doing. He could make it seem like he was doing it for completely academic or hypothetical purposes, not so he could track an actual serial killer.

Hopefully Jazz would still be awake at this time of night.

* * *

 _FentonWorks, Jazz Fenton's Room…_

Jazz sipped her coffee looked over her notes again and got started on the next paragraph. She was beginning to wonder if she was pushing herself too much. What with tutoring, ghost hunting, her normal academics as well as her personal and extracurricular projects. But everything seemed so important, it was not just like she could quit tutoring those kids or break her parents hearts by ditching the family business, they were already in a fragile enough place right now.

So she would soldier on, drink her coffee and over achieve as she always did. What else was she supposed to do?

A breath of cold air made her shiver and she tried to remember if she left the window open. She could not recall and she blamed the over abundance of thoughts and tasks she had on her mind right now. With a shrug she pushed back from the desk, mentally rehearsing her next few sentences as she turned to close the offending window…

Which was already closed, and locked, but had done nothing to stop her rooms other occupant from entering.

"Hey Jazz." Her dead brother's ghost waved at her. "So if you were a serial killer who had a long and bloody history of stabbing people and playing with their bodies, where would you spend your time?"

Jazz stared at him for a moment. Then she looked to her half full coffee mug, she then proceeded to close her eyes and count to three. She then turned and walked out the door of her room and began to head downstairs.

"Umm, Jazz wh-" Danny started to ask but Jazz answered before he could finish.

"To get more coffee, I can tell this is going to be a long night."

* * *

 _Sam and Tucker POV, FentonWorks, an hour later…_

"I still think this is a bad idea, we got grounded for a reason Sam." Tucker protested weakly as the goth girl dragged him along with her.

"Yeah, stupid reasons." Sam muttered darkly.

"Sam, we ditched school to go to that creepy ass circus because you said, and I quote, "I thought it would be fun." then we got caught immediately afterwards." Tucker's voice sounded firmer as he said that. He was not happy about the detentions or the grounding that resulted from that little excursion, heck the entire circus had been a creep central, or perhaps gothic central may be more accurate.

Especially that Ringmaster, there was something off about that guy.

"Okay Tucker, you didn't have to-" Sam cut off and went quiet.

"Didn't have to what? Go with you? And let you get in trouble by yourself? Sam I-" She shushed him before he could finish and mouthed "listen." She gestured up the staircase where muffled voices could be slightly heard.

And so he did.

"... creepy alleyways at night, probably in less reputable parts of town, got it." A male voice was saying, it sounded familiar but Sam couldn't quite place it. She had heard it recently though.

"Be careful, I'm not sure you know what you're getting into." A snort interrupted what sounded like Jazz's voice. "Okay maybe you do, but still."

"Thanks for the help Jazz and try and keep your parents out of this, they could get really hurt." The other voice said.

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other and slowly and quietly approached Jazz's room where they could listen at the door.

"So could you." Jazz pointed out to whoever she was talking to.

"I'm harder to finish off. I think that's pretty clear given the current situation." The male voice said in a somewhat joking tone.

"That's morbid." Jazz shot back. She went quiet for a second. "Seriously though be careful, I don't want to lose you again."

Sam and Tucker shared a confused look.

"Take more than the ghost of one of history's most famous serial killer's to put me down for good." The other voice said.

"Don't even joke about that Danny." Jazz responded and Tucker's world went for a loop.

Sam had similar thoughts but took less time to process them properly and instead just slammed the door the _only living_ Fenton child's room open just in time to see a figure vanish and Jazz stand like a cornered deer.

"Jazz." Sam said slowly as though talking to a young child or a scared animal. "Who were you just talking to?"

* * *

 _Danny POV, Flying Over Amity Park…_

Well that had happened.

Danny honestly had not expected Sam and Tucker to show up at his former house in the middle of the night. When he was alive, he vaguely recalls it being a common occurrence for their group of friends. But now that he was not there for them to visit at this time of night…

He really did not need this weighing on his mind right now, he had bigger fish to fry, he would have to deal with whatever Sam and Tucker had overheard later, though he did feel somewhat guilty for leaving Jazz to deal with the fallout of that, at least now he did not have to worry about her trying to follow him as he went looking for the Ripper. Whom she had immediately linked with _Jack_ the Ripper, which Danny had admitted seemed pretty obvious in hindsight.

Figuring he could deal with the personal stuff after tonight, he turned towards what might have been Amity Parks red light district if it were a bit bigger. Really it was just the run down area where the less than ideal business of the town set up shop. In other words the perfect place for a serial killer to pick off a few people who would not be immediately missed.

As he flew his thought drifted unwarranted back to his living friends, former friends? That actually kind of hurt to consider but he was not sure what else to call their relationship at this point. They had attacked and fought him, he had nearly killed Sam before he recognized her for who she was.

That was not the kind of thing someone could just write off as an accident. _"Oops you almost killed me but it's fine because you remembered who I was and stopped at the last second before having a mental breakdown and running away."_ Yeah, not his finest moment really. No matter how guilty he felt about it though, it was better if Sam and Tucker both just forgot about him and moved on with their lives at this point.

Hopefully Jazz could come up with a decent-

His train of thought was cut off by a glowing red knife hurling into the sky. Danny rolled out of the way letting the blade fly off into the night and out of sight. But before he could collect himself another dozen similar weapons followed, leaving him to spin and dodge as they all flew by.

What the hell-

More knives came before he could finish the thought but this time he was ready and he quickly had his shield out blocking them, he heard what sounded like shattering glass as they hit the enchanted ice wall. Thankfully it was the weapons that shattered and not his barrier.

The feeling of displaced air was the only warning he got for the next attack. He swung himself around and there was a sound like fingernails on a chalkboard as his assailants weapon glanced off of his Stalhrim. He did not get the chance to feel satisfied and retaliate though, as the attacker roundhouse kicked him out of the sky with the force of a tractor trailer.

He crashed in the corner of a nearby building, demolishing bricks and disorienting himself in the process. He hit the concrete hard, he barely had a chance to push himself up before a hand grabbed the back of his head and forced it into the ground. He was then dragged along in a similar manner, creating a gash in the middle of the rode straight down the street. To put it simply the only pain worse than what was currently happening was the pain of dying, but at least that was over quick.

Thankfully his attacker pulled him from the concrete and threw him through the glass of a nearby store. As Danny pulled his mental faculties together he carefully ignored the merchandise said store had in stock. He had lost his shield somewhere along the way but there was not much he could do about it now. Instead he stood his ground, drew his sword and faced his attacker.

A grey figure with red eyes and an impressive mustache floated through the broken window. The red blade he skillfully spun in his hand left little doubt as to the identity of his attacker. In light of this, Danny had only one thing to say.

"I kind of expected you to be taller."

The psychopath in front of him chuckled. "I've heard a lot of things from my victims before I gut them like swine but I will admit Phantom, that's a new one." Danny twitched, if anything the accent made the other ghost sound perpetually condescending.

"Let me guess, got tired of waiting for me to come after you and decided to attack first?" Danny asked wearily circling his opponent, his eyes darting to the street looking for his shield. A TV in the corner of the store was the only background track for this meeting. Danny felt a bit insulted by that.

"On the contrary, I've been keeping a close eye on you little Phantom, after all you've come a very long way in your short existence chap." The Ripper admitted. "I'm actually rather impressed." He floated into the store but forced Danny away the wall much to his frustration. He really did not want to fight this guy's knives without something other than his sword to put between them and his body.

"Gee, thanks impressing a mass murdering fruit loop has been really high on my to-do list let me cross that off." Danny shot back at him. He really did not like the way the guy was acting he seemed way too… relaxed.

"Quite." The Ripper deadpanned. "More to the point I realized something, it would be a shame to kill you now. But well, if not you I'm sure our lovely Warden would find someone else to send after me, and this would continue until either one of them manages to succeed or I go back to the Infinite Realms and **SlAuGhTeR tHe EnTiRe PoPuLaTiOn.** " The ghosts eyes seemed to bug and his lips curled to reveal twin rows of razor teeth.

Danny jerked back in surprise at the sudden change of pitch and facial expression. But just as quick as it appeared it was gone. The ghost continued "So that leaves me with a dilemma Phantom, I think I'll let you "keep hunting" for a bit longer."

"I'll catch you." Danny told him in no uncertain terms. He meant it, if this lunatic was crazy enough to let him keep coming then there was no way he was getting away from him.

"I highly doubt that." The Ripper said, "You'll keep failing and I'll keep up my gig, I like this era, so many people who no one would miss."

"You need to chill out!" Danny shouted and hurled a blast of icy cold energy straight a the other ghost, who nimbly dodged but the Phantom was already on top of him with a calculated swing that had the other ghost's knife missing him by millimeters his ice sword swept across the Ripper's forearm.

The severed portion hit the ground and dissolved into ectoplasm. The Ripper stared in shock for a moment. "Oh." Was all he managed to say before Danny hurled an ecto-blast that rang like a cannon at his face throwing him across the store and into the corner with the TV.

Danny soared after him, hands already filled with ice cold energy that he immediately used to trap the Ripper's good arm and torso against the wall, leaving him effective immobile and helpless.

"Well, jolly good show chap." The Ripper congratulated as Danny stood over him. "I knew I was right about you."

"Just shut up, I'm taking you to Walker, you're never hurting anyone else. You'll be locked away forever." Danny told him, he could feel the energy humming behind his eyes.

"Forever is a long time." The Ripper responded. "I mean in just the short amount of time I've been free I've gathered a lot of power. Enough to say… grow back a limb."

He saw the attack coming, but he still wasn't able to stop it. The Ripper suddenly had his other arm back and used it to break his torso and other arm free even as another knife formed in the opposite. Danny raised his sword in a clumsy guard as the knife slash.

 _*SHINK*_

Nothing hurt so that was a good sign, but as he watched, the top of half of his sword slid off and fell the floor leaving a dull tipped two foot long guard in his hands.

"Don't feel too bad boy I've been at this game a very long time. I've learned a few things." The Ripper had moved behind him in the brief moment of surprise he had at the breaking of his sword. An arm went around his neck and a cold and clammy hand pulled his hair back forcing him to look up.

"One such thing is that as an S-Class ghost, mind control doesn't work too well on me, _you_ on the other hand…"

He might have kept talking but Danny could not hear him anymore, all he could see and hear was the swirling red orb on the TV screen and a low humming that sounded with it. Then a voice seemed to pierce the hum like a pick would to a vein of gold.

" _Unleash your inner darkness at Circus Gothica."_

* * *

 **Well I think that more than made up for my time of eh?**

 **Bit of a cliffhanger but it needed to be, things have been put in place for the next few chapters and everything I've set up is coming to a head. Well except things like the tome of the ancients, Vlad, Anomalus, Thanatos, and the weird figure from chapter three.**

 **That's coming next. Well, some of it anyway.**

 **But I hope you enjoyed the chapter! The next one will come out in about two weeks or so. I make no promises yet because the school year is closing and I have a few things left to do.**

 **Anyway, reviews!**

 **Therealrane: Much like Danny's ghost powers**

 **Gold Testament: Maybe, but Danny's alway been a bit thick headed, he doesn't want to admit he might need help for this. He also doesn't want anyone he cares about in harm's way.**

 **ReaperGenesis32: You almost had my original plan right there, a few minor differences but still. I decided to cut that out because it would kind of ruin the whole premise of the story, which is that Danny is dead.**

 **JudgeDreddSA: Glad to hear!**

 **SquidbaggerOfWoomyAndNgyesness: Danny vs. Ripper round one could have gone better, but it also could have gone much worse.**

 **Guest: Eventually I swear.**

 **Feurrige: Spoilers.**

 **SonicMax: Yeah Desiree got dealt a bad hand.**

 **Tsukiko K: Never really been a fan of Iambic Prose. GhostWriter was never much of a character in the show and Danny was a fourteen year old. Admittedly GhostWriter wasn't that bad a person and I actually kind of like him but I don't think he'll play too big a roll for much of this story.**

 **KnightOwl247: Always happy to hear that.**

 **Cinthya : And it is continued to be continued!**

 **MetroNeko: Well you were right about her figuring it out first, even if you are a bit late to the party.**

 **Megatronus Uchiha: Sorry about the wait and I put it under Dan Phantom because, well he's not really Danny Fenton anymore. And putting both of them as tagged seemed like an oxymoron.**

 **5542mj: FINALLY! It took two years but someone finally got the reference! Have a cookie.**

 **Nightmaster000: Glad you thought so.**

 **Guest (2): Bob is complicated.**

 **That's all folks to everyone who reviewed the note that used to be hear, thanks for the support but I'm fine, well as fine as I'll ever be! Also you may not be able to review this chapter normally since you already reviewed the notice so if you feel the need to just PM me.**

 **Until we meet again folks! Probably in two weeks!**

 **~FriTik**

 **R &R**


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